Ravenwood - 12/30/02 08:57 PM
The Telegraph reports that the number of people paying the top tax bracket in the UK has increased 50% in recent years to more than 3 million people. Pundits accused the Inland Revenue department (apparently the UK equivalent of the IRS) of trying to bury the statistics by releasing the report during the slow Christmas week.
They point to measures taken by the current administration to effectively raise taxes by freezing the personal expemption, and scrapping numerous deductions including an allowance for married couples and mortgage interest.
There are currently movements in this country to take similar measures, including scrapping deductions for mortgage interest, and charging home owners imputed income tax on property that is owned outright. That basically means that if you paid off your house and had no house payment, you'd have to pay income tax on the payment you'd normally make to make it 'fair' to those of us that are stuck still paying for housing.
Neal's "Democrats Secret Plan for America" claims that Socialists would also go so far as to charge imputed income tax for increases in market value. So, if you had a mortgage payment of $1000, but the average rent was $1500, you'd have to pay taxes on the $500 difference as 'imputed income.' After all, it wouldn't be 'fair' to let you get away with paying less than your 'fair share'.
Imputed income? Hmmm...say you're in your 60s and you've owned your house for over 30 years. Your mortgage is paid off, so your mortgage payments are $0. You'd then have to pay tax on the potential income you'd get if you rented out your house, even though you aren't receiving a dime for it. So, the Dems apparently want to tax senior citizens at a higher rate than folks in their 20s.
Let's see them extend the imputed income tax to people living in rent-controlled apartments. After all, its only fair, right? At the very least, they should allow landlords of rent-controlled units tax credits for the lost market value...if they want to be consistent in their logic.
But there's a simple way around this imputed income tax: You give me the deed to your house, I give you the deed to mine (with a separate contract that stipulates the deeds must be returned at some later time); you pay me what your mortgage costs, and I pay you what mine costs. Then we don't "own" our houses, so we can't be charged the imputed income tax.
Even the Dems wouldn't be stupid enough to propose a tax so blatantly unfair (how fair is it to tax something that doesn't exist??) and so easily avoided.
Lemme put on my Socialist hat for a minute. Easy way to get you on that one is to charge you income tax for the 'rent' you are 'earning' from your tenant.
Posted by: Ravenwood at December 31, 2002 5:09 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
