3 ms·
The higher rent you'd pay if you chose to live closer to where you work so that you wouldn't have to drive should also be tax deductible I guess.
by qwytw 3y ago
The higher rent you'd pay if you chose to live closer to where you work so that you wouldn't have to drive should also be tax deductible I guess.
- mindslight 3y agoI'd say the amount of rent paid in proportion to time working (+supporting activities) divided by time awake should be fully above-the-line deductible, yes. The point is there are many such deductions that businesses straightforwardly take, that natural persons are told it's all "personal use", despite them being directly necessary to sustain person-as-an-economic-actor.
- qwytw 3y agoI guess I somewhat agree in principle but an indiscriminate tax cut/deduction/universal income would be a much better approach. Easier to administers and much fairer.
- mindslight 3y agoI'm torn on this, because on one hand I think keeping a record of everything you spend, sorting through it all to tally it up, and generally tracking one's life with spreadsheets is a horrible way to live. So the tax code de facto requiring that is oppressive. But on the second hand (and this was my main point here), these are deductions that businesses already get to take. Get routinely paid on a 1099, and see all the deductions you can take essentially by virtue of now "running your own business". It's obscene. Perhaps set up an LLC+S-corp for even more. But on the third hand, I get the argument that if we just eliminated business deductions in general, that "thin businesses" would be impractical.