2007-03-17

Reporters Ignore Low Tax Rates Boost Tax Revs

"The mortgage interest deduction, the biggest single subsidy to homeowners, will cost the federal budget about $80 billion this year, according to the administration’s projections. Deductions for state and local property taxes will cost $15.5 billion."

That's as incorrect as stating: "Nadir cost himself thousands of dollars last year by selling his iTunes songs for only $1 each instead of $100." Well, no matter how good Nadir's songs are, he'll sell more at $1 than $100 -- lots more. I assume that at $1 he sold perhaps 10,000 songs, for a 10k bucks in sales (and I rekon $1,00 in payments to him). At $100 a song, I assume he would have sold zero songs.

If the feds eliminate tax breaks for home ownership, far fewer people will own homes, and home prices would reduce. Thus if last year these breaks did not exist, the home owners of last year would not simply have sent the feds $80 + $15.5 billion. Instead, existing and potential homeowners would have BEHAVED DIFFERENTLY than if the tax breaks stood. Their new behavior would have surely involved spending their money in ways that would not expose them to taxes.

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