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The solar investment tax credit for homeowners is 30% of the installation cost net of any state or utility company rebates. If the entire credit cannot be used in the current tax year, it can be carried forward over a five-year period.
I'm for broadening the tax base and lowering tax rates. Eliminating the home mortgage interest deduction and charitable contributions deduction would broaden the base.
Eliminating tax incentives reverts things to an economic perspective. The tax tail should never wag the economic dog.
And while we're at it, there are a ton of business tax incentives that should be eliminated too. Again, broaden the tax base and lower tax rates.
Regardless of the approach, neither do much if government spending isn't curtailed. That's the tough part. So, we're stuck with deficit spending and a federal deficit that will continue to grow. Kicking the can down the road as a political solution will continue being the solution.
I'm all for eliminating deductions for state income taxes, city income taxes, property taxes, and mortgage interest.
Personally, I'm in favor of maintaining deductions for charitable giving - so long as the contributions are not mostly paying for the compensation of the charity administrators. I just don't see why a major charity needs to pay its top employees 7 figures.
I'm all for eliminating deductions for state income taxes, city income taxes, property taxes, and mortgage interest.
Personally, I'm in favor of maintaining deductions for charitable giving - so long as the contributions are not mostly paying for the compensation of the charity administrators. I just don't see why a major charity needs to pay its top employees 7 figures.
Not that I think any of those changes will happen, but how is a top quality administrator for a non profit any less valuable than one working in a for profit enterprise? There's still a market rate for that skill set, and "non profits" still seek profit to survive and grow. It's just that the profits are redistributed back through the entity rather than being distributed to owners.
If they want talent, they still need to pay for it just like any other structure. A "top charity" won't be there for long with lacking leadership.
I don't have a mortgage (though I might in the future). Every year, I calculate standard deduction vs. listing everything, and I save more with standard. So in my current situation, raising the standard deduction would be good for me, as well as renters and folks who have paid-off homes.
Why should home mortgage interest be deductible, anyway? Sure, it encourages people to buy homes, but is it fair to penalize people who aren't financing a house? Like, poor people?
It does seem like a lot of tax credits aren't thought through very well. Like the credit for solar systems (solar power systems, that is, not the planets grouped around our sun); if you don't owe enough taxes, you pay more for solar than people who are earning enough to owe a lot. That's right, poor people have to pay more.
The tax credits aren't poorly thought out, you just don't seem to know the difference between refundable and non refundable credits.
Also, non homeowners aren't being penalized. There's a huge difference between being incentivized to act in a certain way compared to being penalized for not acting that way.
The problem is people hear "no mortgage deduction" and since 70% of the population are idiots and can't understand that at Trumps suggested deduction 95% of homeowners won't have to itemize. How amazing would it be to do taxes in 30 mins with almost no record keeping required?!?
I get some pretty generous deductions with my job but have to do a lot of record keeping, it's a PITA. I'd rather just make it nice and simple.
While we're at it let's make all capital gains as regular income and simplify it even more.
Why should home mortgage interest be deductible, anyway? Sure, it encourages people to buy homes, but is it fair to penalize people who aren't financing a house? Like, poor people?
The mortgage interest deduction favors persons in more expensive markets, and/or persons buying pricier houses, where the mortgage interest is high. It disfavors persons who pay cash for a house, who buy cheaper houses, or who have been homeowners long enough, that the interest-portion of their monthly payments has become small. In sum, this deduction favors young professionals buying their first house in an expensive city.
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Originally Posted by Pub-911
Yet is has nothing to do with what's personally beneficial and everything to do with what's socially beneficial.
What’s “socially beneficial” is not an incontrovertible fact, but itself a matter of contentious debate and opinion. By one reckoning, we need more assiduous mowing of residential lawns, and should encourage such behavior. By another, lawns are wasteful and environmentally unjustified, so we should discourage weekly lawn-mowing, given its pollution and noise. Who is right?
And besides, who among us has sufficient magnanimity and fortitude, such that we would NOT conflate narrowly personal interest, with abstract claims about the “greater good”?
And besides, who among us has sufficient magnanimity and fortitude, such that we would NOT conflate narrowly personal interest, with abstract claims about the “greater good”?
People who cannot see beyond narrow self-interest should not participate in public decision-making. We routinely disqualify jurors for such shortcomings after all.
And what I've still not seen on this topic is an efficient model for how existing homeowners who bought and paid with an HMI deduction in place can sell to new waves of potential buyers who will not have that deduction available.
Not that I think any of those changes will happen, but how is a top quality administrator for a non profit any less valuable than one working in a for profit enterprise? There's still a market rate for that skill set, and "non profits" still seek profit to survive and grow. It's just that the profits are redistributed back through the entity rather than being distributed to owners.
If they want talent, they still need to pay for it just like any other structure. A "top charity" won't be there for long with lacking leadership.
That's the conundrum. Yes, they require competent management. At the same time, expending 91% of total revenue on compensation of employees leaving little for the actual good work of the charity is unreasonable.
Yet is has nothing to do with what's personally beneficial and everything to do with what's socially beneficial...
... according to the Will of the Protektorat. Funny how, despite yielding incredible social benefits, government bureaucrats don't just stop wasting the oxygen in the atmosphere. I guess they put what is personally beneficial to them above the social good.
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Originally Posted by Pub-911
People who cannot see beyond narrow self-interest should not participate in public decision-making.
Yes indeed -- yet they populate the ranks of the Deep State. Should they be allowed physician-assisted suicide for the social good?
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Originally Posted by ohio_peasant
What’s “socially beneficial” is not an incontrovertible fact, but itself a matter of contentious debate and opinion.
True. Unfortunately, the inside-the-beltway bureaucracy is convinced it knows best. And elected officials and government bureaucrats have seldom found any problems that couldn't benefit from just a bit more, "fiddling about" (as The Who said in rock opera Tommy).
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