Speakeasy forum: Well James, looks like you'll get your wish

I need to wonder if this one is real or just another dud. I'd not be surprised if both sides wanted this and are already preparing to make further political hay out of it. We, the voting public, have become more stupid and more like sheep every day. I agree and have said so for a long time...it's past due that we throw the rascals out.

Is it the deduction for mortgage interest?

Who won't be affected by that? I'd guess most people on welfare. Renters probably won't, many rentals are already paid for by the owners. Senior citizens for the most part probably won't miss it since most own their homes outright. The ones hurt the most are those in the prime working and earning years. Is that such a bad thing?

Is it higher taxes on some middle incomes?

Well, that's where the most income is produced.

I just don't see the "cliff" being as bad as everyone has been saying. What I do see is some sacred cows in the tax code abolished, at least for a while. Maybe it will finally shake things out enough for some real tax reform to come along later.

If most rentals are already paid for, then those who are renting a place that's not paid for will have to compete against the rentals which are paid for and THAT will be the determining factor on whether they meet the same rent rates, or decide to sell the property instead.

....people buying these 4-6000 sq ft McMansions and then deducting all the mortgage interest off their taxes. There should be some sort of limit on how much mortgage interest could be deducted if itemized, and not too far beyond the standard deduction. I'm in favor of medical deductions, because that's something that one can't really have complete control over, but buying a barn of a house is.

I take the standard deduction because my home is paid off. In fact in the final years of paying the mortgage I was able to quit itemizing and ended up saving money because it meant I also didn't have to account for state income tax refunds as returned income.

It would if I was figuring out the operating expenses....

Every other rental in the area is rented and they are all mortgage free...You have 4 apartments for rent....You also have a mortgage interest deduction.....You don't take advantage of the surrounding market factors/supply and demand?...

Can you spell sucker? You should be able to...because you would be one. You're certainly not running a business...perhaps a charity.

You just finished paying your mortgage off?...you reduce the rent of your renters?

Maybe you gave your time away free or cheap and live on pork & beans but not everyone takes a vow of poverty.


Don't bite my head off...James is the one that doesn't figure expenses/deductions into how to make a buck.

is a deduction on a primary home, one you are living in and purchasing. Rental property operate under a different tax method which computes cost vs rental income. See IRS Publication 527

but when you do stop to think about it, why should there be a deduction for buying shelter and not for renting it?

Because that was something they wanted to encourage. More houses built, bigger houses built, more money spent.

A wage earner that rents (maybe be cause the work causes him to move a lot) still has the cost of providing shelter for the family just like the one that buys a house.

People can use cheap interest rates to buy more than they need. They'll pay more in taxes and maintenance later and will also have less in savings. A smart person would still remove the interest rate factor and buy only what they need and can take care of.

but right now that all the family is gone, it's getting to be a drag.

Diana

everyone is looking at that.

It's not even the amount of the cuts, it's the demand for across the board, unflexibility, and cut good with the bad.

Pox on all of them, they're not representing the people interest, they're not even doing a decent job of representing their special interest interest.

They've adopted a mindset that this is an important principle for them (both sides) and not even caring a shet what happens to the majority of the population of the country.

Read one response to story on Yahoo news earlier today, wish I saved a link. One guy actually put forth some reasonable alternatives to such inflexible positions that raised taxes and cut spending.

Re it may be better than anything they've come up with......well duh, they haven't come up with anything but political maneuvering to make it all the other guys fault if it happens.

I wish everyone of them had to do work where they didn't sit on their a ss all day until the election for the average american income. Then I wonder how they'd vote.

Anyone seen any proposal to freeze the cost of living increases for Congress? indeed shouldn't as a gesture of leadership should the least thing they should have already done was passed a moratorium on congressional wage increases until the debt was below a goal? No, they want to freeze SS but not their sacred a sses.

He ll with all of them.

and rather than apocalypse this is the beginning of a new cycle, could it be the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius? so long delayed from the 60's?

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Hmmm, looking at the world, nope I don't think so. In fact, the opposite of each would seem more accurate, disharmony, deliberate misunderstanding, selfishness and self centerness, and absolute no trust. As far as no more falsehoods or derisions? give me break, that's most people's goal now.