The Tax Bill: Placing a Dagger in the American Dream of Home Ownership

Huffington Post ^ | 11 Nov 17 | Miles Zaremski

[Mr.Unique]

I certainly would like to see how many tax filers have a property tax exceeding $10,000.

I do. I'd guess that many in San Diego County do.

[Paladin2]

ALL interest paid should be deducted from your Income, just as Interest received (except tax free munis somehow..) is added.

[Raycpa]

The 1986 act created the concept that real estate losses were passive losses and as such could not be deducted against non passive income. The investors mainly purchased investments in real estate for the losses.

[SkyPilot]

People (middle class, not even upper middle class) can easily average $10K in property taxes in the northeast (NJ, CT, NY).

CA is lower on average due to Proposition 13. However, CA gets around this by sacking everyone with other local and state taxes (oh, and by the way, both the House and Senate bill obliterate these deductions so the Feds can extract more money out of people).

I saw Hugh Hewitt on television a few days ago. I really like and respect Hugh. We have e-mailed on several occasions. He is a great support of our military, and of veterans. He is one of the best informed talk radio hosts: he understands far better than Rush, Hannity, Savage, how Washington really works, how agencies work, how Congress operates, and of course he understands the law. Only Mark Levin is smarter than Hugh in terms of intellect.

Hugh is very much for this terrible "tax cut" bill. He has been speaking with members of the GOPe, and Hugh repeated that both chambers want to eliminate state, local, and property taxes (the House version caps property taxes, but that is going to be thrown out in conference). Hugh stated: "They have to eliminate SALT because there is real money there."

What Hugh means by that is they want our money - to pay for a tax cut for Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook.

Both the Senate and House tax bills have two frameworks:

1. Favor corporations above all, but throw out propaganda that the bills are really tax cuts for the middle class

2. Scrounge for loose change in Federal revenue by eliminating or reducing almost every existing tax deduction to pay for slashing the corporate rate from 35% to 20%.

[SkyPilot]

I would like to know how many tax filers have over $500,000 in mortgage interest on heir main property that they reside in.

The House bill caps the mortgage debt deduction at $500K, but the Senate bill actually increases that to $1M. Do you know why?

The Senate was under heavy pressure from the banking, mortgage, real estate, and housing lobbyists.

But the bill still doesn't work for them:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthasharf/2017/11/10/senate-tax-bill-saves-the-mortgage-interest-deduction-but-the-real-estate-industry-still-hates-it/#1b9e9755187c

[taildragger]

"Because once it passes, it will screw over you, your kids, and your grandkids for decades to come."

Sky,

I had lunch this past week w/ my brilliant Tea-Partying/Deplorable CPA Gnome, 30 yrs in the biz and one of the topics of discussion was this tax bill.

They like the business side, but the personal side, my words not theirs it's horrid

IMHO who wrote this? K-Street Obviously.

My CPA ran the numbers for me and my fam, yes we get hit, some of their clients in unique situations ( a Veteran was one a Sr citizen ) will get hammered (note they describe the situation in the 3rd person to protect confidentiality ).

We need all the Freeper CPA's and Enrolled Agents to chime in.

Look I get it, simplify the code, and make the code pro-business for growth. However the CPA said yes after I said why the increases on our side and they noted the "balance" and I asked why not "Dynamic Scoring" and they noted. "Do you think Washington really wants to cut spending and will let go of the revenue?" and then we discussed yes, the growth on the business side will make up for the revenue, but of course they have to play their games, they either don't have the cohones to dynamic score or won't do it, gotta protect the swamp and grow it, not drain it....

[SkyPilot]

However the CPA said yes after I said why the increases on our side and they noted the "balance" and I asked why not "Dynamic Scoring" and they noted. "Do you think Washington really wants to cut spending and will let go of the revenue?"

Thanks for the post.

The incredible thing to me is that so many people have swallowed what Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are selling - hook, line, and sinker.

I just read this article in The Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-republican-tax-bills-contain-a-fatal-flaw/545645/

"And because Republicans won’t be able to let the revenue-raising provisions expire—such as the elimination of the state-and-local-tax deduction—the final bill is likely to look like much more of a tax increase for some people than it does now. “Whatever they decide to sunset is going to make people unhappy and be an unpopular decision and generate a lot of blowback,” Lorenzen said. “That is a tough choice they may not want to reveal until the end.”

I predict that for the next few weeks, you will hear less and less facts about what is really going on, because they know that the more people are learning about these bills, the more unpopular they are. They have to work quickly, and behind the scenes - keeping as much information from the general public as possible.

Only when it is all too late will they admit the truth about how bad this is going to be for millions of people.

[Taxman]

Self ping.

[taildragger]

"Only when it is all too late will they admit the truth about how bad this is going to be for millions of people."

Or it a subtle self-sabotage so that they do loose the House and Senate because they don't want to lead and change to the Trumpian vision as they still want to suckle to the teet(s) of K-Street and it's life source for them.

Then they can throw up their hands and beg to take back the House and Senate and play that game bla bla bla, whilst they eat, drink and be merry with the likes of their gentleman and gentle lady across the isle that they are more in the words of doc-Savage more cccoooommmmffffoooorrrttttaaabbbbllleeee with.

[lightman]

Between the refusal to repeal Øbamacare and the Tax $hift bill the GOP-E is determined to exterminate the middle class.

There are too many peasants starting to encroach on the lifestyle of the rich and famous, so the herd is in need of thinning.

[SkyPilot]

Between the refusal to repeal Øbamacare and the Tax $hift bill the GOP-E is determined to exterminate the middle class.

Agreed. They can't seem to pass anything else, but they pass a tax increase?

Amazing. Just amazing. Who would have thought that at this time last year, we would be debating this?

[Ambrosia]

http://www.tax-rates.org/new_jersey/property-tax All of that is here, and I don’t understand why you are arguing with me about NJ....I don’t live there!

So where do you think that deduction stops? $20,000.?

[Ambrosia]

I used Cumberland because article used it for median taxes of some counties in NJ, so NOT all counties are taxed that high, only ones with expensive homes!

[Ambrosia]

The number you used was for the most expensive county, and that wasn’t median for all NJ...

https://nces.ed.gov/edfin/pdf/StFinance/NorthCa.pd

Not sure who asked for NC info, as to use of property taxes for schools....so there is the link. A few years old but should be same.

NC has a lottery (like SC) that pays for a lot of public school expenses. In fact, SC builds new schools all the time with their lottery money, nice schools.

[Weirdad]

Dang it!

So anything that leaves more money in the hands of the people is bad because it lets states raise taxes? That’s what you are saying.

Would you not rather require us all to take vacations instead of paying more federal income taxes? That also would reduce the amount states could commandeer.

Good intentions, bad logic.

The function of federal taxes is not to limit what states can collect from the pittance left.

Moreover, Federal tax receipts should be limited as much as possible, because starving (or at least imposing a diet upon) a government is one of the most effective steps in limiting the POWER of government to abuse We the People, LIMITS on government being the center of the genius of orthodox Americanism.

It is FEDERAL power that must first be subjugated to the individual sovereign states, not vice versa.

SO, to lower state taxes, fight at the STATE level to have low taxes. That’s what we should do.

Don’t advocate letting the feds run wild taking our money, thinking that it prevents states from being able to tax us after we are put upon by the feds. If you read anywhere that idea, it is not a source to be trusted.

Do not countenance the idea that the FEDS ought to be allowed to “double tax” money (often money we HAD to earn to pay taxes on the homes we live in) just so states cannot bear to tax us more because of the high taxes we will owe to the feds.

That’s advocating for an out of control Federal Government.

Double taxing is evil. It should not be condoned.

(I guess I repeated myself there a bit but it bears repeating!)

[Weirdad]

I think it is wrong. See post 115.

[Scotswife]

Leading to a democrat takeover in 2018 - and a President Mcauliffe in 2020.

What a colossal waste.

[moehoward]

“Less tax benefits to me means homeowners making more rational decisions. The result is a healthier economy particularly on downturns.”

Bump that.

[trebb]

Stop giving all the handouts and eventually we will not be gutted for taking care of business while others reap the benefits of our labor - welfare should be subsistence and those who can do anything productive should not be allowed to kick back and live with all the luxuries. Gonna take a lot of discomfort to get back to a constitutional government which is why i doubt it will ever happen - too many of the People are addicted and they see some personal reason why some of the unconstitutional stuff should stay in place.

Our government is no different than a casino or a drug dealer in that they all know how to addict folks to their product.

[trebb]

It appears that for the Social Justice Warriors on Free Republic, when government takes less of your money at the barrel of a gun, they call it weaning./i>

And you seem to believe that having them keep taking the larger amount is preferable to starting to take less because it's "all or nothing" even though anyone who has been paying attention knows there isn't a way in Hell that the "all" deal will ever happen...

Reality bites and then we drop our drawers and point it to our butts to make sure it gets a good chunk...