The “loop holes” in the tax code regarding income earning real estate, from single-individual-owner residence that is rented out, to commercially owned residential, comercial business property and every other real estate, is a “bipartisan” affair - as far as who has lobbied for the favorable real estate tax provisions.
In addition to all the commercial and investor interests who would lobby against changing the rules regarding real estate there would be millions of individuals joining them who just own one or a few rental-income houses as part of their personal investment.
I might even disagree with with a few of the real estate tax provisions, on philosophical grounds, even in spite of having used them in the past. My point here is just to say the popularity of those provisions extends across the population and far beyond the ultra rich investors. Both major parties have supported them and their popularity has increased as the economy grew and more and more upper middle income folks began to invest in real estate and take advantage of the favorable tax rules it has.
The tax provisions Kushner used are used by millions of people spanning many income levels.
If the NYSlimes really wanted to go after the favorable tax provisions given to real estate, they could have done so with examples all across the political and income spectrum. But they really just wanted to do a biased political report, and no a true unbiasd “expose” of the tax code.
For myself, I am a “flat tax” advocate and would prefer a low flat income tax with no deductions, exemptions, exclusions or credits - just a flat tax collected any time any kind of payment to someone was made, for investment income earned, or labor, or product or services rendered. The tax code for that would be just a few pages.
Depreciation helps the average taxpayer match his cash flow from a rental property to his taxable income. Most real estate investments are financed. The law doesn't allow a deduction for the principal portion of a mortgage payment only the interest. Depreciation is a paper deduction that helps lower the investors income so that on average the income reported for income taxes will be the same amount of income generated by the rental property over the life of the property.