[edcoil]

I am not that old but the did have ratio write-offs. The largest was 1017-1 so if you put a dollar in your company you got to deduct 1017. You could also deduct all interest on credit cards, hell everything was deductible get a copy of 1950’s tax return.

I watch bryan gumbal on good morning America (that goes way back) they had a guy put his tax return on tv. He made over 1 million dollars and after doing his taxes he got a refund of over 300,000.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

As mentioned in the book Catch 22, companies could be run as a tax loss on purpose just because the reasons you gave. Done right during those years, a tax loss company could make more than a successful one. The last time I ever heard of a company being run for a loss was the one on the TV show Moonlighting. I thought the law changed to stop that loophole even before the show aired.

[afraidfortherepublic]

You could also deduct all interest on credit cards

Credit cards in the '50s? No such thing. We had store charge accounts, but the only major credit card was American Express and you had to pay a fee for that and pass a rigorous exam for credit. And AMEX required the card to be paid in full each month. Generally the only people who had an AMEX card were people who traveled for business -- and that was in the 60s.