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Obama's Budget Seeks to Shrink Tax Benefits of Owning
Wahington Post ^ | 3/8/09 | Kenneth R. Harney

Posted on 03/08/2009 1:10:16 PM PDT by Nachum

The cluster of special federal tax benefits and subsidies for homeowners has long seemed politically untouchable. Those include deductions for mortgage interest, local property taxes and capital gains exclusions on up to $500,000 in sale profits.

Is the Obama administration serious about beginning to limit at least some of these subsidies?

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: budget; homeownership; homes; nationalization; obama; obamacrash; obamarecession; obamataxhikes; privateproperty; realestate; seeks; shrink; socialism; taxdeduction; taxes
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To: ari-freedom

This really doesn’t have anything to do with ownership. The main deduction is the mortgage payment deduction, and that is a deduction for owning not borrowing. We are at the point in our mortgage where we pay mainly principle, and not much in interest. We don’t get much of a deduction. Someone who owns their house outright, will only get to deduct property taxes. We subsidize borrowing, not ownership.

That being said, this is what he said he would do. For all those that stayed home on election day, I guess it made a difference. He is just getting started.


41 posted on 03/08/2009 2:07:09 PM PDT by ga medic
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To: Nachum
deductions for local property taxes

That's going to hurt those in the lib states more than anyone else.

Is he trying to destroy the real-estate market?

42 posted on 03/08/2009 2:11:38 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: Myrddin
Obama says we won't get to deduct state or property taxes on our federal returns.

That will also hurt the Dem states more than the rest.

43 posted on 03/08/2009 2:15:37 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: FocusNexus

Politicizing the Census Bureau is a bad sign.


44 posted on 03/08/2009 2:22:05 PM PDT by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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To: Nachum

That ought to invigorate the housing market.

What’s a few thousand more abandoned homes.


45 posted on 03/08/2009 2:22:46 PM PDT by Carley (President Obama ~ Leaving No Tax Cheat Behind)
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To: Twinkie

Where I live in Alaska, There is a $150,000 exemption on property values for the primary residence of property owners over 65. If your residence is worth more, you pay taxes on the difference.


46 posted on 03/08/2009 2:34:12 PM PDT by snowtigger (It ain't what you shoot, it's what you hit...)
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To: FocusNexus
Mortgage payments not being fully deductable effectively INCREASES the payments, when people already can’t afford them.

Not really. What it will increase is the amount of federal tax people have to pay. Will they look at their increased taxes and then decide they can't afford their house? Perhaps.

Given the very low interest rates over the last 10 years, I think many people will find that not having that deduction would make only a small difference. I figured my taxes with and w/o that mortgage deduction and it increased my taxes under $1000.

47 posted on 03/08/2009 2:38:40 PM PDT by Dianna (Obama Barbie: Governing is hard.)
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To: FocusNexus

Ding Ding Ding-we have a winner!


48 posted on 03/08/2009 2:38:51 PM PDT by pistolpetestoys (Sarah ROCKS!!!!!)
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To: jabchae

Alaska has a similar policy, but I dont know if its just drastically reduced or eliminated, asking the expert now...(mom)


49 posted on 03/08/2009 2:43:53 PM PDT by intenseracer (Welcome to the Obamanation!!! now where my money at?)
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To: Free_SJersey

Its not the destruction of the middle class—its making all of us the “middle class” in a European Socialist model. We will be living in tiny homes and apartments. The goal for your grandchildren will be to have a government job where they won’t have to worry about inflation since the government will give them their yearly cost of living increase. That’s how it is in Cook County now. At the bottom of the middle class will be the entrepreneurs, expected to work long hours for little compensation. The only other class will the the elites—those with the power/money such as government leaders, big Hollywood and the Oprahs, Media leaders, etc. They will not be affected by the policies put in place, which they are doing for the good of “the people”—everyone but themselves.


50 posted on 03/08/2009 2:50:14 PM PDT by Fu-fu2
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To: Nachum
Those include deductions for mortgage interest, local property taxes and capital gains exclusions on up to $500,000 in sale profits.

Do this and I double damn guarantee you that we are going to have the 2nd Great Depression... housing prices will sink so much that everyone will just walk away from their houses.

In a situation like this... cash is king.

Ignore Obama advice... DO hide your cash in your mattress!

51 posted on 03/08/2009 2:53:08 PM PDT by John123 (The US may be going down the drain, but everyone else will drown first...)
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To: Nachum

O ne

B ig

A ss

M istake

A merica!


52 posted on 03/08/2009 3:02:09 PM PDT by 2harddrive (...House a TOTAL Loss.....)
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To: Nachum

I do not understand why such deductions are allowed for ownership, anyway. Ownership should be the prize in, and of, itself.

But then I’m for either a flat tax or a national sales tax as an option to the current system. Those approaches have no specialty deductions.


53 posted on 03/08/2009 3:09:47 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Who is now in charge of the "Office of the President-Elect"?)
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To: Nachum

Good—either dump the mortgage deduction or create a renter’s deduction. You can’t have one without the other. The perverse incentive to own was a major factor fueling this housing bubble. Owning a house is not “the American Dream”. Freedom is. People who can’t afford to own should rent, and no special incentives should exist to own.


54 posted on 03/08/2009 3:11:58 PM PDT by FreepShop1 (www.FreepShop.com)
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To: Nachum

Private ownership and/or entrepreneurship is a bad thing to Obama. Controlling your own destiny is a bad thing for Obama. He wants everyone dependent on the government for as much as humanly possible.


55 posted on 03/08/2009 3:45:23 PM PDT by St. Louis Conservative
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To: NoobRep

56 posted on 03/08/2009 3:50:08 PM PDT by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: ConservativeMind
I do not understand why such deductions are allowed for ownership, anyway.

A business can deduct the interest on loans used for any business purpose because it's a business expense in pursuit of a taxable profit. Similarly an investor can subtract the interest costs from the profits of a stock investment. If the home interest deduction is eliminated it would make sense to form an investment company to own your house since the interest would then be deductible again.

57 posted on 03/08/2009 3:53:21 PM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: NoobRep
Just wait when the lower limit is $175k..........

I'll bet anyone here....it's coming.

58 posted on 03/08/2009 3:58:56 PM PDT by Osage Orange (Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators. -Will Rogers)
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To: expatpat
That will also hurt the Dem states more than the rest.

I agree. The northeastern states have exceptionally high income and property tax rates. They are also Obama supporters. I'll bet their taxes go up more than a dime.

59 posted on 03/08/2009 4:31:13 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: mysterio
I think you are asking about the place where there are no property taxes, but that photo of the slum is Ulan Batar, capitol of Mongolia, see also wiki entry.

Google Maps - Ulan Batar or Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

60 posted on 03/08/2009 4:42:41 PM PDT by Aliska
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