Re:Peter Thiel turned a Roth IRA into a $5B tax-free piggy bank
by lmm on Friday June 25, 2021 @10:45AM
(#27631411)
Rules that are fair on first principles are exactly what I want. The mortgage interest tax deduction is nothing of the sort; it's a grotesque carve-out that distorts the tax system for the sole purpose of transferring common wealth to the people who least need it. It's just obscene.
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Re:Peter Thiel turned a Roth IRA into a $5B tax-free piggy bank
by prepend on Friday June 25, 2021 @06:12PM
(#27636902)
The mortgage tax deduction is only for the first $375 (or $750 for couples).
It seems pretty fair as billionaires don’t even notice such a tiny deduction.
If anything it gives money to the middle/upper class but encouraging home ownership is an overall positive force.
Re:Peter Thiel turned a Roth IRA into a $5B tax-free piggy bank
by lmm on Sunday June 27, 2021 @10:45PM
(#27657558)
It encourages debt and buying larger homes (e.g. the common advice to get the biggest mortgage you can), which doesn't necessarily increase overall home ownership (larger homes means fewer homes). Even if it does encourage home ownership, why is that a social positive worth spending tax money on - especially when we're talking about putting tax money straight into the pockets of the top ~half of the population (the bottom ~half don't own homes at all), and the more expensive your house the more you get? Even with a cap, that's just backwards.