What a strange example to pick. That's, like, THE major write-off that most people have. It just gets obfuscated by the fact that most people don't go over the standard deduction.
Up here, home mortgage interest is only deductible if the home is used to generate income, so it does not apply to people who use a home as their primary residence. But what if you have a home office? What if you use it as an AirBnB some of the time?
If you ask a tax accountant whether Canadian home mortage interest is deductible, they will answer "a definite maybe." But it's actually "no" for most people who don't structure their home ownership around qualifying for a deduction.
My mortgage interest became "worthless" for that when the standard deduction was raised. I'm still better off than before, but that particular part of the benefit is gone.
Since California by many measures is large enough to equate to a "country", It would be fair to add it to the list of places where primary residence (and a second home too) mortgage interest is largely deductible.
This is demonstrably false. But then again, you don't expect factual accuracy from a comedian.
> As some replies have pointed out mortgage interest on a primary residence is permitted in some form in six countries: The Netherlands, Switzerland, the United States, Belgium, Denmark, and Ireland.
This Wikipedia sourced list is obviously not exhaustive. And interest deduction is allowed in the US which is the relevant case here.
And China[1]. And India[2]. (Although I don't know either country's housing market and therefore don't know how to interpret upper limits).
Between the US, China and India, it seems like most people and the biggest economies do that.
[1] https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201812/23/WS5c1e2dc0a3107d4c... [2] https://www.bankbazaar.com/tax/mortgage-tax.html
> The Netherlands, Switzerland, the United States, Belgium, Denmark, and Ireland allow some form of the deduction.
That's six out of roughly 195 countries in the world. Perhaps you live in one of them, but billions don't.
"The rich have all of the money and pay none of the taxes. The middle class pay all of the taxes and have none of the money. The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class so they keep going to those jobs."
—George Carlin, 1937-2008
UPDATE:
As some replies have pointed out mortgage interest on a primary residence is permitted in some form in six countries: The Netherlands, Switzerland, the United States, Belgium, Denmark, and Ireland. If you live in one of these six countries, my comment does not apply to you. If you live in any of the nearly 200 other countries in the world, it does.
YMMV: "Your Mortgage-interest-deductiblity May Vary."