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Re:Renting is Throwing Money Away, Right? (2015) by gnicholas on Monday April 23, 2018 @03:11AM (#16901127)
Good point about the property tax deduction becoming much less valuable in high-income tax states like CA. It used to be the case that property tax was basically built-into the cost of renting. That is, your landlord pays property tax, gets to deduct some, and then passes the pro rata share onto each of the renters. This implicit property tax created an equivalence with the property tax that you would pay if you bought a home.

But we now find ourselves in a strange situation where businesses (i.e., landlords) can deduct property taxes but individuals cannot. So it shifts the balance in favor of renting because one major cost (at least in SF/LA/etc) is no longer deductible to most individual homeowners.

I found it odd that as the tax bill was winding its way through Congress, no one asked why businesses should be allowed to deduct SALT, but individuals should not be able to. I can't think of a good reason for this, and I am a (former) corporate tax lawyer.

Re:Renting is Throwing Money Away, Right? (2015) by cperciva on Monday April 23, 2018 @05:44AM (#16901913)
Businesses get to deduct property taxes because they're earning income from the property. Individual owner-occupiers of property aren't earning any taxable income from the property.

Yes, individuals should get to deduct their property taxes... but only after they start paying income tax on imputed dividends.