3 Comments

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  Meremortal - 16 years ago

  "Getting rid of the mortgage interest deduction would be foolish. First, it would drop most house prices by at least 20% -- not something anyone needs."

  I need it if I'm buying, 20% off sure would help.
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  "People buy houses based on affordability."

  Yes, that's why a price that's 20% lower is preferable. It's also more sellable.
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  "Do we really want a system that favors a wealthy minority owning most of the housing?"

  That's what we have now.

  The deduction should be phased out over 10 years. We survived losing the write-off for credit card interest (3 martini lunch, anyone?). Landlords get deductions because they are running a business and paying taxes on the profits. Owning a home is a lifestyle decision, not a business venture. The idea that home ownership is a path to riches has caused a lot of problems. How about some stable, affordable housing prices?

  None of this matters to quite a few people currently, since they don't have a job in order to pay taxes and get deductions from same.

  "

• 
  Michael Cummings - 16 years ago

  Getting rid of the mortgage interest deduction would be foolish. First, it would drop most house prices by at least 20% -- not something anyone needs. People buy houses based on affordability. Killing the deduction would effectvely raise house payments by the amount of tax otherwise saved. Second, yes, the deduction is "social engineering." It puts homeowners almost on par with landlords, who get to deduct interest as well as maintenance, repairs, insurance and other costs that homeowners cannot deduct. Do we really want a system that favors a wealthy minority owning most of the housing?

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  Francis C. Howland Jr. - 16 years ago

  Taxing ANY interest payments is dubble Taxsation! The tax is paied by the entity that charges the intrest, as income.