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

Enrique Diaz-Alvarez enrique at anise.ee.cornell.edu
Thu May 27 14:26:38 PDT 1999


Henry C.K. Liu wrote:
>
> Not only that; the income from alternative investment is subject to income
> tax, so it becomes a wash with mortgage interest deduction for tax
> purposes.

Unless you are a millionaire. Then

1) your tax subsidy is 45%+, and if you can take your investment proceeds as capital gains (easy), you only pay 20%, so it is no longer a wash

2) The $7,500 loss becomes much smaller relative to the amount of interest you can deduct; at any rate, if you are rich you probably have many additional deductions you can take that more than offset the $7,500.

The mortgage interest tax scam is one of the most effective means of redistributing income towards the top quintile. That many of those it hurts the most (non-rich homeowners) still regard it as a good thing is an impressive feat of public relations and mass deception, ranking up there with the fake SS "crisis". Repealing it should be at the top of any progressive agenda.

-- Enrique Diaz-Alvarez Office # (607) 255 5034 Electrical Engineering Home # (607) 272 4808 112 Phillips Hall Fax # (607) 255 4565 Cornell University mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu Ithaca, NY 14853 http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique



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