Significant change in federal taxes on home sales

[jeffk]

Important news for some of us.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aimqrSLesKyw&refer=worldwide

If you own a vacation home, sell your primary home and move into your lake property the current law says if you sell it after living there for 2 years you pay no capital gains on the first $500,000 of profit. The change would index that exemption based on a formula as to how long you have owned the property. The money would be used to support those affected by the sub prime mortgage mess.

So a person gets into a risky mortgage, perhaps one that they shouldn't have gotten to begin with, and things go bad and it's now our problem to pay for it. Thanks a lot federal government. :fire:

[brk-lnt]

Wow, that really sucks.

I am so sick of hearing all the sub-prime whiners that can't manage their finances and now expect responsible people to bail them out.

[MAXUM]

Oh common now, didn't you see all those sub-prime borrowers in the lending office with a gun to their heads? :rolleye2:

Nope, but you darn sure will when the IRS comes knocking on your door to collect the bailout money for these fools. :(

[Irish mist]

The mixed blessings of a mixed economy. I don't agree with this at all......but I'm not surprised. Since the early part of the 20th century government has grown leaps & bounds. This is just more feeding of the beast.

[Rattlesnake Guy]

Would it not be nice if all of our risky investment decisions had zero negative expectation. Sort of like the fools rebuilding houses below sea level in LA and being responsible to do it again if needed. Oh wait that fool is us.

[Coolbreeze]

Lets not forget our Billion dollar a day war! The rich get richer and the poor have to bail out the government.

[secondcurve]

``Families dealing with the pain of a foreclosure should not have the double whammy of a large tax bill for terminating their mortgage through no fault of their own,'' said Rangel, 77.

Charlie Rangel is an ASS. He was crowing about how great it was when the home ownership rate in this country moved into the high 70% range not too long ago. Now, when it is discovered that a lot of these people borrowed heavily and wrecklessly to buy their homes it is a problem. Yes, there were some slime balls in the mortage and real estate businesses that took advantage of certain folks and they should be dealt with harshly. However, a lot of these home owners never should have been home owners as they didn't have the means to qualify. I am all for helping people in need, but most of these folks were simply greedy and they took on a lot of personal risk to satisfy their greed.

[secondcurve]

Lets not forget our Billion dollar a day war! The rich get richer and the poor have to bail out the government.

Coolbreeze if that is how you feel, why don't you write a check and send it into the IRS to help balance things out.

[Rattlesnake Guy]

``Families dealing with the pain of a foreclosure should not have the double whammy of a large tax bill for terminating their mortgage through no fault of their own,'' said Rangel, 77.

Charlie Rangel is an ASS. He was crowing about how great it was when the home ownership rate in this country moved into the high 70% range not too long ago. Now, when it is discovered that a lot of these people borrowed heavily and wrecklessly to buy their homes it is a problem. Yes, there were some slime balls in the mortage and real estate businesses that took advantage of certain folks and they should be dealt with harshly. However, a lot of these home owners never should have been home owners as they didn't have the means to qualify. I am all for helping people in need, but most of these folks were simply greedy and they took on a lot of personal risk to satisfy their greed.

I usually don't try to figure out what Charlie says but this one makes me curious. Are there people who were paying their mortgages who were foreclosed on because their institution failed or is Charlie spinning that not paying your mortgage is "no fault of their own"?

[kjbathe]

I'm reminded of one I saw while commuting to work one day... "Keep working. Millions of people on welfare depend on you." Yeah... :rolleye1:

But in reading the Bloomberg article, this proposal passed through Ways & Means. Doesn't it need to go to the full House and Senate before it becomes law?

I'm not indifferent to those that find themselves in an unexpected financial jam, but I don't think it's the Feds job to come up with another program to bail out folks who took on financial commitments they were unable to meet. It's called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Not Government responsibility. Certainly not MY responsibility. Or yours. The folks got in the jam and they should find a way out. But not with theirs hands out or Uncle Sam (i.e. you and me) writing the checks.

Then again, when I hear Hillary talking about national health care, bailing out mortgagees seems like loose change in my pocket.