Tax Reform and Incentives to Encourage Owner-Occupied Housing

Tax Reform and Incentives to Encourage Owner-Occupied Housing
Author: John E. Anderson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 37
Release: 2006
Genre:
ISBN:

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Public policy designed to encourage home ownership has operated primarily through the federal income tax system in the United States. With multiple incentives for home-ownership, the income tax system is the main tool by which the federal government encourages families to become home-owners and accumulate wealth in the form of real estate. Recent policy debate over reform of the tax system has questioned whether a mainstay of this system, the mortgage interest deduction (MID), is the best way to accomplish the stated objective. Last year the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform recommended converting the MID into a 15% tax credit subject to regional caps related to median house prices, touching off a vigorous public debate on the importance of the MID. The purpose of this paper is to examine economic implications of that recommendation. We model how switching from the MID to a credit would affect housing finance choices between debt and equity and show how these changes would have changed the tax benefits for various households. Furthermore, we simulate the number of mortgage originations in 2004 (the most recent year which data is available) that would have been subject to the caps in the Panel's recommendation, and we identify the specific urban housing markets that would have been most severely affected. Finally, we conclude with policy discussion of the proposed credit alternative.

Income Tax Provisions Affecting Owner-occupied Housing

Income Tax Provisions Affecting Owner-occupied Housing
Author: James M. Poterba
Publisher:
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2008
Genre: Housing
ISBN:

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The mortgage interest deduction, the property tax deduction, the unique treatment of capital gains on owner-occupied homes, and the absence of taxation on imputed rent from owner-occupied homes all influence the effective cost of housing services. They also affect federal income tax revenues and the distribution of income tax liabilities. We draw on household-level data from the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances to analyze how several potential reforms would affect incentives for housing consumption as well as the distribution of income tax burdens. Our analysis recognizes that changing the mortgage interest deduction would induce changes in household financial behavior. We estimate that repealing the mortgage interest deduction in 2003 would have raised income tax revenues by $72.4 billion in the absence of any portfolio adjustments, but by only $61.9 billion if homeowners responded by drawing down a limited set of financial assets to partially replace their mortgage debt. The revenue effects of changing the property tax deduction similarly depend on how state and local governments alter their mix of revenue instruments in response to federal tax reform. Our results underscore the importance of recognizing behavioral responses when calculating the revenue costs of income tax provisions relating to owner-occupied housing.

Tax Reform and Housing

Tax Reform and Housing
Author: Patric H. Hendershott
Publisher:
Total Pages: 20
Release: 1984
Genre: Home ownership
ISBN:

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Current tax law provides tax advantages to owner-occupied housing that increase with a household's income. This well understood fact has led to periodic proposals to substitute a tax credit equal to, say, 25 percent of housing-related expenses for their current deductibility. Because all of the tax reforms considered in this paper (Hall-Rabushka, Kemp-Kasten and Bradley-Gephardt) move toward a flat rate schedule, they all will sharply reduce the tax-advantages of owner-occupied housing to higher income households relative to lower income households. In fact, our analysis suggests that all reforms will lower the price of obtaining housing services from owner-occupied housing for these households and raise it for higher-income households. The "breakeven" income at which the price of these housing services would be unchanged is about $55,000 for Kemp-Kasten and Hall-Rabushka probably $10,000 less for Bradley-Gephardt. The price of renting housing should rise under all reforms, probably by 5 to 10 percent. In combination with the decline in the price of obtaining housing services for middle and lower income households, this should give a signficant boost to homeownership. Under Kemp-Kasten, ownership rates will rise for four-member households with AGI (as renters) of under $60,000; for higher income households ownership could decline marginally. The breakeven income level is roughly $40,000 for Bradley-Gephardt and $35,000 or Hall-Rabushka

Taxation and Housing

Taxation and Housing
Author: James M. Poterba
Publisher:
Total Pages: 13
Release: 1992
Genre: Mortgages
ISBN:

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This paper sketches how the tax reforms of the 1980s affected the incentives and distortions associated with tax policy toward housing markets. There are three principal conclusions. (1) Reductions in marginal tax rates, particularly for high-income households, reduced the tax-induced distortion in the user cost of owner-occupied housing. This lowered the deadweight losses associated with the favorable tax treatment of homeownership. (2) The increase in the standard deduction in the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) removed several million middle-income homeowners who previously itemized from the ranks of itemizers. For these households TRA86 raised the marginal cost of owner-occupied housing. These changes also exacerbated the regressive nature of the mortgage interest subsidy. In 1988, more than half of the tax losses associated with mortgage interest deductions accrued to the 8% of taxpayers with the highest economic incomes. (3) TRA86 reduced incentives for rental housing investment, contributing to the decline in new multifamily housing starts from 500,000 per year in 1985 to less than 150,000 in 1991. In the long-run these policies will lead to higher rents.

IRC §42: Low-Income Housing Credit

IRC §42: Low-Income Housing Credit
Author: U.S. Internal Revenue Service
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2019-03-16
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0359517056

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The IRC ?42 Low Income Housing CredThe IRC ?42 Low Income Housing Credit Program was enacted by Congress as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 to encourage new construction and rehabilitation of existing buildings as low-income rental housing for households with income at or below specified income levels. Congress recognized that a private sector developer may not receive enough rental income from a low-income housing project to cover the costs of development and still provide a return to investors sufficient to attract the needed equity investment. The IRC ?42 program provides tax incentives for investors to make equity investments. In exchange for equity, investors receive tax credits and other tax benefits associated with ownership of the project to offset federal income taxes for a ten year period. These tax benefits, plus the possibility of cash proceeds from the eventual sale of the project, represent the investors' return on investment.

Major tax reform options

Major tax reform options
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance
Publisher:
Total Pages: 794
Release: 1984
Genre: Income tax
ISBN:

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