Saturday, February 8, 2014

If I Paid You $250,000 Would You Read Your Insurance Policy?

In an article published in Bloomberg Business Week, Congressman Mike Quigley (D-Ill) is backing a bill that would eliminate tax breaks for mortgage interest on what he calls “luxury yachts” used as second homes, saying the interests of owners of second homes are of no concern to him.

Over the next ten years this cutting edge piece of sh… legislation could radically slash the $8 billion second-home mortgage deductions taken in the US each year by – hold on to your hats - $150million… a staggering number for anyone who doesn't know how to divide 150,000,000 by 8,000,000,000.

So, with more than $100,000,000,000 in insurance fraud taking place each year, Quigley is more bent on going after people who put money into the economy as opposed to going after those who steal money from it. Hey Mike - don't forget to renew your MENSA membership.

With more than 12 million boats registered in the US (and the average mortgage running right at $50,000) this deduction is available to roughly 600,000 boat owners. This deduction is also available for owners of second homes, cabins, condos, townhomes, recreational vehicles, etc… so long as it has a place to eat, sleep, and go potty and the person spends 14 nights there per year. Quigley and the dems want the deduction gone for any piece of property that could be classified as a second home. This is yet another attempt at economic parity by his party that will have little effect on the wealthy and will end up penalizing the "average Joe" boat owner.

Sticking with his party's “since the majority of the people can’t use this loophole we’re going to close it” mentality, Quigley said, “There is no reason taxpayers should subsidize luxury yachts.” Obviously Quigley doesn’t understand the difference between a tax deduction and a subsidy - and he certainly doesn't understand what a "luxury yacht" is. That's okay - I'm here to help.

I’ll go slowly so Mike and his colleagues can understand… A subsidy is when the government gives you other people’s money to spend and a tax deduction is when they don’t take as much of your money from you after a year of spending it... but for people like Quigley who don’t know any better, the quote has legs, baby!

And if you want to know what a luxury yacht is, come visit us in Florida and we'll show you around. I'm sure you can deduct your travel expenses.

Here’s the deal: The "luxury yacht" mortgage interest deduction is only available to 5% of owners of all registered boats in America. Five percent. So, apparently, 11,400,000 American boat owners are either paid-in-full or they don’t own what Quigley woiuld consider a “luxury yacht.”

Thank you Mike Quigley for supporting a piece of legislation that would take away a deduction readily available to all boat owners (and owners of second homes of all varieties) that have a mortgage on a boat with a head, a hot plate and a place to sleep - regardless of value - while accounting for a less than 2% reduction in total second home mortgage deductions over a 10 year period – whether the second home floats or not.

While you're busy fighting for pennies you're costing taxpayers dollars and creating what could amount to an economic disincentive to purchase "second homes." Now stop screwing around and get to work on legislation that makes a difference!