Tax Breaks–But Only for the Very Rich 0
Zeroing in on ways to protect middle-class taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax, President Bush’s tax advisory panel said Tuesday it might recommend whacking two of California’s most cherished income-tax deductions: mortgage interest and health insurance.
“Choose your poison,” said Claudia Hill, a Cupertino tax preparer who testified to the panel in March about the need to reform the AMT system.
Meeting in Washington on Tuesday, the blue-ribbon Advisory Panel on Tax Reform agreed that homeowners should be allowed to write off all their mortgage interest only on loans less than about $350,000 — and maybe even lower — far below the typical loan needed to buy a home in Silicon Valley. That’s roughly one-third the current maximum of $1.1 million in mortgage and home-equity debt.
The panel also is leaning toward limiting the deduction employers can take for paying the premiums for their workers’ health insurance. Currently, there is no limit to that deduction, and workers pay no income tax on that compensation.
Noticeably missing is the simple solution: Raise the minimum income level for the Alternative Minimum Tax and roll back the tax breaks that the current Federal Administration has granted to the very rich.
Clearly, the intent of Mr. Bush’s Tax Advisory Panel to discover any strategy to raise money that does not involve having the very rich pay their fair share.
That way, the Dennis Kozlowski’s, Bernie Ebbers’s, and their like–at the least the ones not in jail for fraud–can continue to have their $2 million dollar birthday parties, and their frauds.
Sheesh.
