By now, Americans have become well acquainted with the fact that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will have a multitude of adverse effects. The new law is certain to add to the federal deficit. It increases taxes on all Americans in a number of different ways, encourages employers to dump coverage, and will cause many to lose their current health plan. However, a circulating claim that the PPACA includes a tax on real estate sales has misinformed the American public. There is not a new specific tax …
The Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), the watchdog board created by Congress to oversee the TARP program, yesterday issued the equivalent of a severe weather warning for commercial real estate markets. Like the residential market before it, the markets for retail, apartment, and other business properties are facing a wave of defaults which, says the panel, “would trigger economic damage that could touch the lives of nearly every American.” The numbers are grim. According to the COP, over the next four years $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate loans will come …
Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) reintroduced his plan today to create a $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers purchasing primary residences. The goal of the plan is to jumpstart the depressed real estate market. But as we pointed out last year when Senator Isakson introduced a similar bill, it will not work and it is bad policy. Furthermore, this additional tax credit is unnecessary because the tax code already encourages homeownership. Mortgage interest is deductible and the stimulus already created an $8,000 credit for first-time homeowners available for homes purchased in 2009.
