Tuesday, October 31, 2017

The only reason itemized deductions are on the table is a minority of 30% of tax filers itemize

And when it comes to minorities, they're only as effective at protecting their interests as their lobbyists. We'll see how strong those lobbyists remain, but Republicans in the House and the Senate are clearly divided, and seem to have joined the side of the enemy. The latter aim to pitch deductibility of state and local income taxes, while the former aim to pitch deductibility of mortgage interest.

It's weird beyond odd that Republicans are having a war over tax deductions when they should be having a war over spending. Republicans used to be the "no new taxes" party, but have become the "no tax deductions" party instead, which means they're more interested in raising revenues than in cutting your taxes (which implies cutting spending).

Just 44.7 million itemized in 2015, out of 149.7 million returns.

Watch your wallets.

Discussed here.