From: "Noam Chomsky" To: "Jeffrey E." <[email protected]> Subject: RE: home mortgage deduction , Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2015 05:08:41 +0000 Have been working all day, and just getting to a ton of email. Deluge is constant. So brief. Sounds very interesting, and would like to hear it spelled out more carefully, particularly with regard to the distributional effects. Next time. From: jeffrey E. [[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, June 07, 2015 1:31 AM To: Noam Chomsky Subject: home mortgage deduction , again , one needs to read to the end of the story to reach a more complete conclusion. the home mortgage deduction as i said cost the govt approx 150 billion dollars in revenue. easy to verify, as a result of the deduction allowed , as you postulated, for the top earners.. However, a deduction , no matter how large- has no revenue impact whatsoever , if it cannot actually be used to offset otherwise payable tax.. it is not a credit , it is a deduction. two years ago the amount, due to the home interest deduction a was 112 billion in lost tax REVENUE. However that being said the govt instituted an Alternative Minimum tax .- in essence to balance out the perceived disproportional nature of the benefit . It application means that you cannot deduct any amount above a certain limit against your income. no matter how high your deductions. targeted at your favorite whipping boys. this alt min tax raised 270 billion this year alone .. a net positive for the govt. .scheme - allowing a deduction . keeping the lobbyists happy , but denying its efficacy by imposing a limit on its use. and in most cases eliminating any real net benefit to the high income filer Fun isnt it , ! much easeier for me to explain that copy movement etc. look forward to our next encounter please note The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged, may constitute inside information, and is intended only for the use of the a