Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin yesterday offered an “absolute guarantee” that tax reform would be signed into law by the end of the year and warns Congress, “You could blow up the stock market if you fail to cut taxes.”
With these and other statements from the Administration, it is clear that the process is speeding up – supporters and critics are bracing themselves.
That includes the Realtor population.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) put out a Call for Action to members on this topic today, the first of this year.
Taxes are a convoluted topic, but NAR’s analysis is that since homeowners pay 83 percent of all federal income taxes, and the reforms being debated could result of a 10 percent decrease in home values, middle class homeowners are not being protected.
NAR’s analysis concludes that for homeowners with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000, the average tax hike would be $815.
Our sources note that the current framework being debated keeps the MID (mortgage interest deduction) “in name only,” and a larger number of homeowners will see tax increases with this as well as state and local tax deductions being nixed.
NAR argues the current tax reform framework threatens homeownership as tax incentives are diminished and real estate professional also pay a price (literally).
People on both sides of the political aisle feel disappointed in the threat to homeownership incentives, particularly given that President Trump had drawn a line in the sand at the mortgage interest deductions just six months ago.
According to Doug Yearly, CEO of Toll Brothers, “making changes to the MID would be very bad policy.” He goes on to state,” this country has prided itself on encouraging homeownership, and MID has been around for decades. It’s worked very well.”
Agree with them or not, NAR is urging their members to “Tell Congress – Do not raise taxes on middle class homeowners in order to cut taxes for corporations,” and offers a pre-written letter that can be sent to their Representatives within seconds.
