4 ms·
> Ok, lets play this game. From now on its renters that have to pay 50% of the property tax. No? But you get to deduct it! an extra deduction for you! whats not
by SmellTheGlove 9y ago
> Ok, lets play this game. From now on its renters that have to pay 50% of the property tax. No? But you get to deduct it! an extra deduction for you! whats not to like?!
Renters already are paying a piece of the property tax. It's built into the rent. They just can't deduct it.
- AznHisoka 9y agoOk that may be true but why should they be allowed to deduct it? They are not a business owner (unlike the landlord). Its like allowing people to deduct 10% of everything they buy from Amazon because they are paying a part of Amazon’s warehousing costs.
- SmellTheGlove 9y agoI'm not advocating for renters to be able to deduct a piece of the underlying property tax. I don't think it makes sense to have property tax as a federal deduction at all. In general, I'm not sure how great it is that we favor home ownership over renting in our tax policy. My bigger issue is being able to deduct mortgage interest but not rent. Mortgage interest is essentially rent on money, so I've always thought it'd be fair to make rent (or a percentage of it at least) deductible as well. Or, even better, eliminate the mortgage interest deduction entirely. Full disclosure, I'm a homeowner. Fuller disclosure, my home is paid off, so it's easy for me to say these deductions shouldn't exist. I would gladly give up the property tax deduction if that additional revenue was used for something other than cutting taxes for the wealthy, though.
- AznHisoka 9y agoOK, I see your point with mortgage interest interested being deductible.