No fair! Things I can't deduct from my Fed taxes...

[bain_sidhe]

Business expenses... didn't have any

Child-care... no kids

Stock market losses... no stocks

Inventory shrinkage... no inventory

And on and on... the tax code is FILLED with deductions I can't take, just because I didn't spend the money to qualify for them. It's just not fair... But, chin up! There's hope for me yet! The Repubs in the House are riding to the rescue of those poor sods in Texas who (oh the horror) can't deduct state income taxes (no state income tax) on their federal tax return. I await my special tax breaks with bait on my breath! They'll be coming along any minute now... I'm sure!

Tax Legislation Worthy Only of The Trash Heap
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26657-2004Jun8.html

One of Reagan's greatest achievements was passage, with bipartisan support, of the 1986 Tax Reform Act. The goal of the landmark bill was to make the tax code simpler and fairer while boosting economic efficiency. Loopholes were closed, tax rates were reduced, and all sorts of distinctions were eliminated so that individuals and companies with the same income or profits were required to pay roughly the same tax.

Those principles, however, are violated on nearly every one of the 930 pages in the recently passed Senate tax bill and the 398-page draft released last week by the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Bill Thomas (R-Calif.).

(snip)

Let's begin with those provisions designed to favor particular companies or industries. In the Senate bill, these include cruise-ship operators, foreign gamblers, NASCAR track owners, insurers, timber companies, cattle ranchers, movie theater owners, and manufacturers of small planes, bow-and-arrow sets and fishing tackle boxes. And notwithstanding the fact that skyrocketing oil prices should provide all the incentive anyone would need to develop new energy sources, there's a couple of billion dollars a year in new tax breaks for energy companies already well-endowed with them. In a final, gratuitous insult to the taxpayer, there's even a provision for a blue-ribbon commission to study "comprehensive tax reform."

The House would leave out the energy provisions but add tax breaks for bourbon distillers and wealthy taxpayers in places like Texas that, poor things, have no state income tax to deduct on their federal 1040. High-tech industry tucked in a provision that would ensure its employees pay no payroll taxes on all those stock options. And in a shameless vote-buying effort, Thomas's draft would have the government pay $2 billion a year to tobacco farmers for the right NOT to pay them annual crop subsidies in the future, as if the quotas were some sort of property right.