181–190 of 275 posts
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which makes it not worth the paperwork effort to do so.
Are you kidding me? $6k deductions is about $2k in rebates. A $150 accountant fee would take care of any paperwork. Taxes aren't that fucking hard.
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which makes it not worth the paperwork effort to do so.
The effort is something like filling in one line, adding up a handful of numbers, copying the result to another line, selecting which of two numbers is larger and copying that one to another line. That hardly even merits the word "effort"...and if you are using tax prep software instead of filling out the forms by hand it isn't even that...it's just entering one number in one field.
I don't see why state taxes should be federally deductible to begin with. Two families both make $250,000 a year. One is in New York and one is in Texas. The family in Texas is carrying more of the federal tax burden than the family in New York. Why? Both are (in theory) receiving the same benefits from the Federal Government and should pay the same in taxes. If you're a progressive this should make even less sense:…
Two questions: ---- 1. What about the property tax deduction? Why are property taxes deductible, but income taxes are not? ---- 2. How do you feel about the mortgage interest deduction? A very similar question could be asked. Two families both make $250,000 a year. One took out a $750k mortgage and one took out a $300k mortgage. Why should the second family carry more of federal tax burden than the first? I don't hav…
There's no objective reason why it should be. But since deductions are largely arbitrary policy instruments anyway - because property tax deduction encourages and makes easier home ownership (at least this is the theory) and the government wants more home ownership. State tax deduction does not really have such goal (unless you see moving people to high-tax states as a goal, but I don't think federal government identifies such goal).
> 2. How do you feel about the mortgage interest deduction? A very similar question could be asked.
Same as above. Only much bigger - given 20% down mortgages, mortgage interest - especially for new mortgages on standard equal-payment plan - is very substantial. So, tax deduction makes owning home easier - and, on the reverse, removing this deduction would seriously hurt current mortgage owners and discourage new ones.
The difference here is that with property-related taxes there is a policy goal linked to it, and also long-term choice individuals make based on this policy, which would make them very upset if the policy changes. With state taxes, there's no real policy goal (for federal government at least) and most people don't choose state to live it because of state tax deduction.
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Two questions: ---- 1. What about the property tax deduction? Why are property taxes deductible, but income taxes are not? ---- 2. How do you feel about the mortgage interest deduction? A very similar question could be asked. Two families both make $250,000 a year. One took out a $750k mortgage and one took out a $300k mortgage. Why should the second family carry more of federal tax burden than the first? I don't hav…
The right answer is to get rid of the deduction. It's regressive (as you point out) and reflected in the costs of housing anyway (people choose the monthly payment they can afford not the house they can afford).
It's the same thing - the house you can afford is one for which you can afford monthly payments. Unless you buy cash, which on the average almost nobody does for low-mid-range market.
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Two questions: ---- 1. What about the property tax deduction? Why are property taxes deductible, but income taxes are not? ---- 2. How do you feel about the mortgage interest deduction? A very similar question could be asked. Two families both make $250,000 a year. One took out a $750k mortgage and one took out a $300k mortgage. Why should the second family carry more of federal tax burden than the first? I don't hav…
You're missing one even more heinous point, renters. A family paying off their 300k mortgage is getting a decrease in taxes owed while being subsidized for paying into an asset. The renting family is not being subsidized and they will never again see the money they are spending on rent. In most areas this is particularly twisted as mortgages will run beneath rental costs for the same standard of living. So the only r…
Guess what happens to rent if cost of ownership rises due to interest not being deductible?
So people making over 200K a year will pay more taxes, cry me a river.
Why should we explode the deficit if we need to make CHIP funding revenue neutral?
Why do we need stimulus in a booming economy?
I love how the articles make it look like Democrats are more likely to be hit by higher taxes. Yes, those states where taxes are going up are majority democrat, but the split isn't that far off from 50/50. Plenty of wealthy Republicans will be paying more tax too.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gop-donors-in-new-york-sou...
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The right answer is to get rid of the deduction. It's regressive (as you point out) and reflected in the costs of housing anyway (people choose the monthly payment they can afford not the house they can afford).
> people choose the monthly payment they can afford not the house they can afford It's the same thing - the house you can afford is one for which you can afford monthly payments. Unless you buy cash, which on the average almost nobody does for low-mid-range market.
I don't see why state taxes should be federally deductible to begin with. Two families both make $250,000 a year. One is in New York and one is in Texas. The family in Texas is carrying more of the federal tax burden than the family in New York. Why? Both are (in theory) receiving the same benefits from the Federal Government and should pay the same in taxes. If you're a progressive this should make even less sense:…
I don't see why state taxes wouldn't be federally deductible. Roughly: if I work 6 hours, I have to work an additional hour a day just to earn money to give to the state; you're suggesting I should work an additional 15 minutes to earn money to give to the feds just because I earned the money to give to the state. Absolutely I shouldn't be paying taxes on money earned just to pay taxes. It's not like I'm "shielding m…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two questions: ---- 1. What about the property tax deduction? Why are property taxes deductible, but income taxes are not? ---- 2. How do you feel about the mortgage interest deduction? A very similar question could be asked. Two families both make $250,000 a year. One took out a $750k mortgage and one took out a $300k mortgage. Why should the second family carry more of federal tax burden than the first? I don't hav…
Two separate issues -- State and Local Taxes (SALT) are income, property and other taxes collected at the non-federal level. They have been deductible since the creation of the federal income tax. In part, because the federal government recognizes that resources are more efficiently allocated locally. And that is one reason why higher taxed states pay more into the federal government's budget than they receive in ben…
Under the proposed tax cut, it could very well be cheaper for two neighbors to own each others houses and charge one another rent (collected via pass-thru corporations even) than it would be for them to own and live in their own houses with the same mortgage terms.