it looks like i was under wrong assumption that all contribution portion my + matching contribution from employer will cause my tax to be reduce by that much. But studying the tax code, it appears my portion of the contribution will only be deducted and employer's portion will only deduct employer's tax. No?
Contributing to a 401k or 403b will reduce the amount of income tax you owe, based off your top marginal tax rate The problem I have with contributions tax free is what my tax bracket will be in 15-20-30 years!! I found this if your income is right at the beginning of a tax bracket, deducting from the taxable income (which is what Traditional 401(k) and Traditional IRA do) may drop your income so it is in a lower tax bracket.
You are correct. TCJA 2017, otherwise known as the Trump Tax cuts ushered in the change you're referring too. You should know better than to talk taxes on this site. Have to actually have income to create a tax liability. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) 2017 is really quite insidious on many levels unless, of course, you're a Real Developer, and/or you derive a significant portion of your income as a result of Real Estate investing operations. In that case, it was a phenomenal windfall. When I got my 1099's this year I thought there was some kind of mistake. Alas, no mistake. RE Dev as Pres, who would've thunk it.