A tax question

[mr-pirk]

I have wondered why a person with children is able to gain a deduction and childess person pays the full tax?
Why should a person paying intrest on a home morgage be able to deduct the intrest on the loan yet a person with a morgage free home pays the full tax?
There are numerous other examples but to keep it simple I will leave it at these two items. If the arguement is that those who have more "disposable income" should pay more or in other words.....those who have more should pay more.......then it would seem that a person with excessive credit card debt or such and on the verge of bankruptcy should be entitled to the greatest tax deduction.
All three examples are results of choices a person makes. None of them "just happen" as with a medical deduction maybe for something that just happened.
I am not arguing the idea of different tax rates for different income brackets...that is a different topic sort-of. Mr-Pirk

[fng]

Silly boy, it's called S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-M.

Why did I have to pay 75% of my property tax to educate some other scum bag's 10 seconds of fun with some gal while paying for mine to go to private school ?

If you really start digging into it, you're not going to be pleased. for your own sanity i would leave that dog lie. Otherwise you may want to do a few roof top jobs.

[rfwerth]

It's just a legislative decision that certain activities should be encouraged for various reasons - general benefit to the economy or families or whatever. For example, allowing a tax deduction for interest payments on a home mortgage effectively makes home buying more affordable for most Americans. Congress put this deduction in the IRC because it determined that allowing more people to own homes was good policy.

[fng]

effectively makes home buying more affordable for most Americans. Congress put this deduction in the IRC because it determined that allowing more people to own homes was good policy.

?????
Oh, please enlighten me on this policy. ........ this is gonna be good.

[rfwerth]

Oh, please enlighten me on this policy. ........ this is gonna be good

What are you having trouble understanding? Congress simply made a determination that home ownership was a good idea, for whatever reason - economic, simply trying to obtain votes, whatever. It wasn't my determination, as I'm not in congress.

What exactly your question?

[fng]

What are you having trouble understanding? Congress simply made a determination that home ownership was a good idea,

So then the conclusion I can draw from your assumption is that Renting is of necessity a "bad thing" ?????

You can't back out of that one. What it boils down to is the "amount" you get back. With homstead credits etc....

Where does it say that Uncle slippery sammy should be involved in housing anyway?

[rfwerth]

So then the conclusion I can draw from your assumption is that Renting is of necessity a "bad thing" ?????

Of course not, read my post more carefully. The question initially asked was why there was a tax deduction for various things, among them a deduction for home interest expenses.

I said this was a result of a congressional determination (NOT my determination) that housing was a good idea for whatever reasons congress chose to believe. This has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with what you or I belive - I simply answered the question asked.

Read slowly: C-O-N-G-R-E-S-S-I-O-N-A-L D-E-T-E-R-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N

Not yours or mine.

[driftrider]

I don't know about any of you, but I like and take full advantage of every opportunity to reduce my tax burden. Even with these deductions the government still gets more than it deserves. As far as I'm concerned the my money is in far better hands if it remains with me and not with the government. I think that if the government can get away with the unconstitutional taxation of our individual incomes, then we are entitled to use the governments own illegal tax code to stick it to 'em any way we can.

Who deserves your money more? You, or the politicians who pass and inefficient govenment entities that administer all of our socialist "entitlement programs"?

I say stick it to 'em anyway you can. If the crack smoking welfare momma's want to eat, they can go get a real job like the rest of us. I won't loose any sleep if my tax deductions cause them to starve to death on the streets.

Mike

[vc1111]

So then the conclusion I can draw from your assumption is that Renting is of necessity a "bad thing" ?????

Renters are honkys.

[mr-pirk]

Fng I understand your point. This is one of those topics that the more I think about it the worse it seems. I agree with the idea that tax policys can and have been used to promote socialism but that wasn't the direction I was headed with this topic.
Rfwerth I can see where goverment can use a tax deduction to encourage different things. You kind of skiped over fng's point concerning renting though. Renting might be a better personal choice for a person depending on thier own situation yet no deduction.
The direction I was headed with this topic is that untill the first tax deduction was passed and allowed by goverment the tax code was very limited in its use as a tool for social engineering. Once the tax code was allowed to be changed it was katie bar the door as far as what was possiable for goverment to do with it. It could be made from a simple open policy to something muddy complicated and by no-means fair and tax increases could be hidden in changes to the tax code.
VC I think we should think up a "Honky" flag and sell them along with bumper stickers.
Mr-Pirk