Free Republic

Housing-industry trade organizations immediately condemned House Republicans' tax bill when it passed in mid-November.Senate Republicans' version passed over the weekend. Unlike the House's bill, it doesn't halve the mortgage interest deduction, but it could still remove tax benefits for homeowners.The Senate's bill raises the standard deduction, meaning households would be less likely to exceed that threshold and choose to itemize their mortgage interest.Both versions could end up weakening home prices. The GOP tax bill should keep homeowners on alert.Early on Saturday, Senate Republicans passed their version of the bill, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, pushing it closer...

Republicans aren’t shy about lobbing the “class warfare” charge at Democrats. But now Newt Gingrich is aiming those words at Mitt Romney over Romney’s idea to scrap or limit the mortgage-interest deduction for second homes. Romney, the Republicans’ all-but-certain presidential nominee, told donors in Florida last weekend that he’d take away the deduction for high-income earners. His campaign later said it was just an idea, not a hard-and-fast policy. But Gingrich took it as gospel. “Governor Romney’s proposal to limit certain tax deductions based on income, including the deduction for mortgage interest on second homes, is a surrender to the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers are eyeing a popular tax deduction for mortgage interest as they look for ways to fill record budget deficits, although any changes are likely to await a broad reworking of the tax code. Two forces are conspiring in a way that could put the long-cherished deduction on the chopping block: a need to raise more revenues and a feeling among policymakers that government incentives for housing have been too generous. "It's a confluence of several factors. First, it's such a large tax break," said Donald Marron, director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. "And the tax...

There are a lot of known unknowns about the new "Gang of Six" budget proposal. But conservatives should hold back from trashing it. Why? There's a large, pro-growth tax-reform piece in the plan that would lower tax rates across-the-board. This is a stunning reversal of the Obama Democrats' soak-the-rich, class-warfare campaign. The best part of the Gang of Six plan is a reduction in the top personal tax rate from 35% to a range of 23% to 29%. For businesses, the rate would drop in the same manner. And the corporate tax would be territorial rather than global, thereby avoiding...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new bipartisan plan to reduce government borrowing would target some of the most cherished tax breaks enjoyed by millions of families — those promoting health insurance, home ownership, charitable giving and retirement savings — in exchange for lowering overall tax rates for everyone. Many taxpayers would face higher taxes — a total of at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade, and perhaps more. The details and impact of the plan, released this week by the bipartisan "Gang of Six" senators, emerged as President Barack Obama called congressional leaders to the White House on Wednesday to...

Liberal columnist E.J. Dionne got it right when he recognized that the charitable deduction question was the most significant moment of the recent presidential press conference. (Now no one can say I never agree with a liberal.) Like so many of President Obama's off-prompter remarks, his answer on charitable deductions exposes him for what he is: an ideologically driven man whose philosophy is based on falsehoods and whose public persona is merely a marketing scheme to acquire the power he really wants. In the press conference, The Politico's Mike Allen asked: "Are you reconsidering your plan to cut the interest...

To add to the mortgage meltdown miseries, the credit panic, the plunging home sales and the rising foreclosures, here's a new worry: a proposed cutoff of mortgage-interest tax deductions for houses with more than 3,000 square feet. One of Capitol Hill's most experienced and most powerful legislators is drafting a "carbon tax" bill that would do precisely that. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), expects to introduce comprehensive climate-change legislation when Congress returns next month. Besides imposing hefty new federal taxes on gasoline, the forthcoming bill would, in Dingell's words, seek to "remove...

The Presidential Advisory Panel on Tax Reform has released its recommendations on reforming and simplifying income tax laws, with the result that the real estate industry was expecting -- the panel is suggesting eliminating the mortgage interest rate deduction and giving a credit of 15 percent of mortgage interest paid to all homeowners. Currently, only homeowners who itemize take advantage of the mortgage interest rate deduction. In addition, a $1 million limit on mortgages eligible for the tax break would shrink to the average regional price of housing, ranging from $227,000 to $412,000. This is one time that robbing the...