Scott, you are insane, right?
Do you know how long the US Federal Tax codes, and administrative regulations and interpretations are?
Stretched end-to-end, they are longer than a football field!
Take your pick! The bulk of that material is loopholes... otherwise know in bureaucratic-speak as "special tax preference items".
Scott, it's a HELL of a lot easier to tell you what loopholes I'd keep in my 'ideal tax code':
I'd keep a deduction for mortgage interest... but just for one home, not two. (I'd also cap the maximum value at some reasonably high value --- somewhere between $1 & $5 Million, say.)
I'd keep a charitable deduction....
I'd ELIMINATE ALL OTHER LOOPHOLES, and then reduce all tax rates accross the board (preferably to a flat rate for all income, regardless of source) by the same amount that was captured by loophole elimination --- preferably even MORE!
For corporations as well, the same loophole and special tax preference elimination --- there is no need for borrowed money to get a deduction that money raised by equity issuance, or retained earnings, does not get: that artificial distinction promotes the 'debt culture' that is eating our economic growth. |
