mortgage talk: Jordan vs. Liu, and much more.

[Max Sawicky]

> . . .
> There are secondary tax effects.  Many personal
> business expenses (a computer or books or what have
> you) that you use for work purposes are tax deductible
> in theory but not in practice.  That is because you
> must meet the 2% threshold: if your income is 50k, the
> first $1000 of "expenses" ARE NOT tax deductible, so if
> you spent $1,500 on supplies only $500 are deductible.

Huh?  The first dollar of expenses is deductible on schedule C,
if you are self-employed or have some kind of legitimate side
business.  (and if you've got negative Schedule C income you are
using to offset wage income, it had better be very legitimate.)
The 2% only applies to expenses associated with salaried
employment, no?  And in that case, you can't deduct your mortgage
payment but, if you are brave, the implied cost of the 'home
office' devoted expressly to this business purpose. How do you
deduct your mortgage payment on Schedule A?  That's a new one on
me.


> But with mortgage expenses you *automatically* jump
> that threshold (You'd probably have $9 or $10 k in
> mortage interest alone, and property taxes are
> deductible on top of that, and then have buried the 2%
> requirement, you can throw in your business expenses).
>
. . .

mbs