And if you're talking about business expenses on an LLC or Sub S you have, you should be getting a 20% reduction on that income vs what that would've been under the old code. If you're hitting caps on deductibility or having them reduced because 7.5% or whatever floor is changed because your income went up, well that wouldn't be because of the code changes. (I'm sure there are other areas where that was changed, but again those would be unique, not the "norm")

Again, I'm not doubting that yours (or Hood's) went up, only doubting that this applies to more than a small minority of taxpayers.

BTW my comment about what you paid on 4/15 being irrelevant was only because tax withholding tables were changed to be more accurate predictors than past tables. So whether you paid less throughout the year, and more on 4/15 (or vice versa), is irrelevant in determining whether your taxes went down or not, just when you paid them. I've seen many make that comment (but unlike what you posted re: take home) as if that means they paid more taxes overall, when in reality they just had less withheld throughout the year and the net paid was still lower.