Posted on 08/30/2009 8:45:34 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
...arlier this month the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office delivered its latest revenue-raising options for Senate and House consideration as they write this fall's tax and budget legislation.
Tucked away in the report are several incendiary plans that could if adopted cost homeowners billions of dollars. Though not formal legislative proposals, the CBO's options represent a handy fiscal menu for legislators to pick and choose from to reduce the deficit now at unprecedented levels or to pay for new programs they might want to advance.
Tops on the CBO's hit list for housing: Slash deductions for homeowner mortgage interest from the present $1.1 million limit to $500,000, phased in with $100,000 annual reductions starting in 2013 and extending to 2019.
Under current law, taxpayers can write off mortgage interest on their principal home debt up to $1 million, and on home equity debt up to $100,000.
Under the CBO's option, that maximum mortgage debt amount would shrink yearly until it hit $500,000.
Over a 10-year period, this change alone would boost federal tax collections by an estimated $41 billion.
The CBO offered up a second option if Congress wants to raise a lot more money: Replace the current mortgage interest deduction with a flat 15 percent tax credit for everybody with mortgage amounts below the declining limits in the first option. Rather than taking write-offs that are tied to your personal income tax bracket, every homeowner would get a credit worth 15 percent of mortgage interest paid.
Who'd benefit? Primarily lower- and moderate-income taxpayers who don't itemize on their returns. Who'd pay more? People with big mortgages and higher-than-average incomes, who are far more likely to itemize under current rules.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
He is correct, but that does not change the fact it is what it is, social engineering. If you are going to have a government someone has to pay taxes. I would rather it be a flat tax. If you want to debate tax theory, it’s a different subject. Maybe interest income should not be taxed???
I would rather to think I was buying bullets for those good old boys in Afghanistan, My great nephew is the trying to kill Ben.
I don’t think they should get rid of it at this point. My point was they should never have done it in the first place.
‘This from a “libertarian”? Statist declarations from on high about what kind of home we should live in?’
I don’t know Glaeser that well, but it does say he’s a Harvard econ professor, which makes that designation seem quite unlikely (though admittedly possible). His various points seem quite consistent with the view of the “tax farmers” in Rome-on-the-Potomac (or now Caracas-on-the-Potomac?) that see all of our income as their potential “harvest”, and begrudge whatever they have to ‘spend’ (i.e., let us keep for our own purposes) to maintain us as functioning sources of future taxes.
There are a lot of incentives.
A tax deduction should never be the reason to be a homeowner or do anything.
Case in point: charities/churches (No one ever said we were supposed to get a tax deduction for giving to God.)
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