[lbo-talk] The tax deductibility of debt

Matt lbo4 at beyondzero.net
Wed Sep 1 07:53:37 PDT 2010


On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 03:22:00PM -0400, Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> What's the rationale and origin for the tax deductibility of interest
> payments? Besides mortages -- I understand the original rationale there.
> But I don't understand it for any other business or consumer financing.
> And was there a specific moment in time when this decision was taken or
> did it just sort of accrete?

Barry Ritholtz wrote about this recently. He takes issue with the belief that the mortgage interest deduction was a policy designed to encourage home-ownership; he claims it is an hsitorical anachronism from when all interest was deductible when the income tax was originally introduced.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/08/a-brief-history-of-the-mortgage-interest-deduction/

Matt

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