Quote from seneca_roman:
This chart compiled by the Brookings Institute shows the top 10 tax loopholes. IMO, the super congress or whatever they call themselves will at some poiint look to this list as a way of balancing the budget without "raising taxes." This in my view will come to pass because few politicians have the guts to cut expenditures.
They total over $600 BILLION per year, much more than congress set as a modest goal .
http://www.tnr.com/article/the-vital-center/91145/obama-press-conference-tax-loopholes
Seneca
If the republicans go along with cutting any of these, they can count on being a permanent minority. The only one that makes any sense to cut is employer -provided healthcare, but that will create a ton of outrage.
The whole reason we are in this mess is the collapse of real estate, so eliminating the mortgage interest deduction is crazy. It would also be totally unfair to the millions of people who bought real estate relying on it.
401k plans are now a loophole? I thought they were the basis of private retirement plans, but of course liberals want an excuse to seize them and put everyone on a one size fits all government plan. Except of course for govenment workers, who will retain their lavish gold-plated plans.
Some of them are absurd, eg "imputed rental income". I believe that means they want to tax you on the rental value of your house. Good luck with that.
Stepped up basis of investments at death is a practical necessity. How are you going to know what grandpa paid for that stock 45 years ago?
Tax "reformers" like to pretend there is a ton of revenue in eliminating them, but no republican politician is ever going to vote for them. Of course, that's why they want commissions, etc. If they did vote for them, they should be tarred and feathered, then hanged. One, for backstabbing the people that voted them in. Two, for stupidity. We went through this exercise before with Reagan. Eliminate "loopholes" and cut rates. Well, we eliminated the loopholes and crashed the real estate market back then in the process. The lowered rates? They didn't last too long. The minue the democrats got in, they raised them. The same thing will happen again.
