Cassandra Says So
Oct 12th, 2005 at 10:56 am by Susie
Because the wingnuts have pushed to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction for a long time, I always said they’d get around to it eventually. Everyone said I was crazy, they “wouldn’t dare.”
Now granted, a recommendation isn’t the same as an actual change in the tax code, but look at how much other outrageous stuff they’ve pushed through under the radar. If they want it, they’ll figure out a way to get it.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 - President Bush’s tax advisory commission indicated on Tuesday that it would not propose replacing the income tax with a national sales tax or a value-added tax, but would recommend limits in the popular tax deductions for mortgage interest and employer-provided health insurance. [...]
For mortgage loans up to $1 million, taxpayers can now deduct all the interest. One proposal discussed on Tuesday would cap the deduction at the maximum mortgage the Federal Housing Administration will insure.
That level changes each year and varies depending on housing costs in each county, with a maximum loan limit now of $312,895 in communities where housing is most expensive and a national average of $244,000, according to the housing administration.
Another proposal under consideration was to change the interest deduction to a credit, meaning that taxpayers with the same size mortgage payments would get the same tax break regardless of what tax bracket they were in.
A third idea was to limit the deduction to 15 percent or 25 percent of a taxpayer’s mortgage interest payments. The wealthiest taxpayers can now deduct 35 percent of the interest.
Bet you’ll hear a whole lot of suburbanites who voted for BushCo screaming now…
This kinda thing gets Repugs killed in our neck of the woods, especially when the average house around here goes at above $400K.
You would literally put people in the streets if it was implemented, and the whole real estate industry would implode.
the mortgage deduction is one of the biggest arguments for ownership over renting, and is one of the things that makes ownership feasible at all. it amounts to quite a large decrease in taxes, even on a very modest mortgage.
so we’ll see lots of middle and upper middle class people not be able to afford their homes anymore. watch them slide into bankruptcy even faster. watch rental pricess skyrocket even faster, as ownership is no longer an option for millions.
watch the rich buy up all that foreclosed property that is fueling the economy for the less rich now. it’s all about redistribution, susie. no one’s supposed to have anything but the ultrarich. it’s gotten too hard for them to follow all those regulations and share and pretend they care and stuff. this just might be the #1 bonus they need to get their serf class back.
because let’s face it, not many are gonna be able to pay that extra tax after this winter’s fuel bills. kick ‘em when they’re down is the thug’s favorite game…
I think it is a set up for bush. He will dust off his veto and save the day. bush will do anything to move those polling numbers up.
To be a contrarian, doesn’t Canada have almost the same Percentage of home ownership but they do not have the home mortgage incentive?
I’m no tax expert - but I think the Million you quote is married filing jointly - if you are single you only get 500K. On the good side, at least their is some limit so the Donald Trumps of the world don’t get to deduct million of dollars of interest payments on their palaces.
I doubt this will happen. There’s too many interests in favor of the current system: banks; builders; fly by night second mortgage brokers; & c. The Republicans can not allow themselves to be seen too openly allowing the middle & upper middle class to get screwed in favor of the 0.1 %.
I don’t know any “po’folks” buying $350,000 houses.
I’m told my 3/2 on a small lake in Palm Beach county (a red hot area right now) would sell for about $250K these days…which is insane since it could easily be duplicated for well under 1/2 that in materiels and labor.
The only viable way to buy a house these days is look for a “wreck” and fix it up yourself.
Sheetrock and paint are still relatively cheap. I get paint for free at the solid waste dropoff site. Color selection is very limited, but the price is right: $0.00. A bit of judicious mixing of otherwise unattractive colors can make decent looking stuff.
Judicious dumpster diving of commercial storefront tearouts yields a lot of usable conduit and prefectly usable electrical parts, and occasionally usably long runs of various cables. Workable commercial grade light fixtures often appear in dumpsters too.
Watch for a strip mall going in and you can score enough ceramic tile do a room. The tile contractors won’t bother hauling extra boxes back to their shop, it goes in the dumpster. The customer already paid for it, they don’t care.
Usable lumber of all sizes and shapes appears in dumpsters all the time too. If you buy a cheap fixerupper you’d be a fool to not avail yourself of these freebies.