送交者: 吴礼 于 2005-10-23, 11:07:15:
回答: Tax reform issues 由 vs 于 2005-10-22, 18:30:05:
My understanding from the newspaper reports are:
1. Mortgage interest is not a deductable, but a tax credit.
2. This particular change benefits the low-income people,relatively. In the current system, the riches save more tax from mortgate interest because they have higher marginal tax rate. With the proposed change, everyone saves the same.
3. State/local tax is not deductable. This puts more pressure for the state and local governments to lower their tax rate. Right now, the Federal government is subsidising the high-spending states.
4. Another important change would be on the AMT. It was designed to ensure that the rich people pay some tax after all these deductions. But currently it adds burden to the middle-class workers.
5. The total amount of tax collected by the Fed is not increases under this "tax reform".