The end of the Roth conversions?

[Xan]

Here’s the bottom line on charity deductions. I love my personal charity deduction. I despise having my tax funds defacto support many causes I’m adamantly against.

Mortgage deductions…a sop to real estate. Why should those who can afford a house have it subsidized when the vast majority or renters get no such subsidy.

Are you guys libertarians or not? This one is a no brainer.

This one is harder to argue for, I agree.

[vnatale]

What we ought to do is have these things be deductible AFTER the standard deduction. Why should I have to give away $24,000/year before any of it is deductible?

And I do do my taxes by hand. Well, almost. I use Free File Fillable Forms, which is paper forms except with blanks you can fill in on the computer. It does a lot of the arithmetic for you. But it doesn't shield what's actually going on behind a bunch of questions for dummies.

I am shocked by your answer.

From what I know of you and if I were a betting person I would have given extremely high odds that you were using tax software.

I used somewhat what you used for a corporate return several months ago only because I could not find a suitable tax software for the limited work I wanted to do. But I did not like having to check all my work with none of it being done automatically.

What I'm pushing for is to basically have NO deductions.

The only reason for deductions is for social purposes...unrelated to financial purposes to create enough income through taxes to equal what we spend.

Finally...I think I've disclosed this year before?

I've been doing this since some time in the early 90s, I believe.

My big deductions are taxes and charitable deductions.

This is an even year so normally I'd pay no real estate taxes, pay no state taxes, and make no charitable contributions. Then on the even years I would make double of each one. That gave me full value of the standard deduction in odds years in that I was getting it and not spending a cent for what it covered. And, getting the maximum possible value for what I was paying for taxes and charitable contributions.

But relatively new $10,000 annual tax limit has somewhat hampered my plan plus my income starting this year is now going to be much lower than prior years.

[vnatale]

Myriad private charities also operate quite inefficiently.

Are you saying that everything from the local, privately run Assistance League which hands out clothes for schoolchildren to the local symphony orchestra and opera company should be beholden to the federal government in the name of "efficiency"?

Zero to do with the government.

All to do with other people having to finance other people's charities. Many of these charities being highly inefficient or ineffective or both.

When I hear the Republicans say why should a low paid waitress in North Dakota have to pay taxes for some Democratic social program that resonates with me.

I'm only saying the same thing here. Why should that same North Dakota waitress have to pay more taxes because people get tax savings from making charitable contributions?

[vnatale]

Instead thinking about the charity deduction.

Think about having higher standard deduction to compensate.

My charitable donations don't go above standard deduction even though it is my largest deductible item.

That doesn't deter me from the donation.

I wonder how much fraud comes with so called charity donations. Clinton foundation?

I have been both the treasurer and an employee of charitable organizations. They do not spend money as frugally as I spend mine.

The government should not be in the business of subsidizing their operations.

Am I not arguing a basic conservative / libertarian / Republican tenet here?

If you want it you pay for it with no government involvement in any way.

[vnatale]

Instead thinking about the charity deduction.

Think about having higher standard deduction to compensate.

My charitable donations don't go above standard deduction even though it is my largest deductible item.

That doesn't deter me from the donation.

I wonder how much fraud comes with so called charity donations. Clinton foundation?

I don't think it should be a matter of compensating. You should get charitable deductions PLUS the standard deduction.

I don't disagree with you, but by that logic you should also get to, say, deduct mortgage interest PLUS the standard deduction. Or any other pet project of lawmakers.

Thank you for expressing far better and more succinctly than I have managed to so far.

[vnatale]

Here’s the bottom line on charity deductions. I love my personal charity deduction. I despise having my tax funds defacto support many causes I’m adamantly against.

Mortgage deductions…a sop to real estate. Why should those who can afford a house have it subsidized when the vast majority or renters get no such subsidy.

Are you guys libertarians or not? This one is a no brainer.

That is what I had thought....

[Xan]

I am shocked by your answer.

From what I know of you and if I were a betting person I would have given extremely high odds that you were using tax software.

I used somewhat what you used for a corporate return several months ago only because I could not find a suitable tax software for the limited work I wanted to do. But I did not like having to check all my work with none of it being done automatically.

Well, Free File Fillable Forms does do most of the actual arithmetic automatically. That's the kind of thing that computers are really good at.

What I definitely don't want is some company's idea of a UI obscuring what's happening with my taxes. I've never found that idea appealing in the slightest.