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10/06/2004 Entry: "SUV Tax Loophole Finally Getting Plugged ??"
At long last, Congress Moves to Close SUV Tax Loophole
Lawmakers expanded the popular write-off from $25,000 to $100,000 last year and lifted depreciation schedules to enable taxpayers to take the deduction all at once. This created a huge incentive for anyone running their own business to buy big SUVs, which have skyrocketed in popularity.
Tax fairness, environmental and consumer groups have complained that doctors, lawyers, accountants and other white collar professionals that run their own businesses have taken advantage of the loophole to buy the flashiest sport utilities for personal use. These luxury models can cost well over $50,000.
The critics also characterized the benefit an excessive tax break for the wealthy. The Bush administration urged Congress this week to shrink or eliminate the advantage, despite objections from some Republican lawmakers that doing so was tantamount to a tax increase.
(More rambling move-related notes: Unpacking continues. Surprisingly the computer is still boxed up though the other media-related electronics are all functional. I've signed up for basic cable after not having it in Arlington for a few years, mainly because I'm going to use it for high speed internet access (the gentoo rsyncs are just taking too long any more...) I still haven't unpacked the box with the camera, so no pictures of my humble abode yet. The parents are due in this Friday to make sure I haven't made some monumental mistake. Much cleaning is in the works, I expect. Tonight's my last trip out to the old apartment, to vacuum up the dust and clean up the kitchen and bath a bit, and then drop off the keys. I left the ceiling fan off last night and noticed the house creaking last night. That sort of freaked me out. At one point I thought something was dripping, so I looked around for a leak but didn't find anything. Still, I was probably more relaxed last night than I have been in a long time, even with the mess and boxes all about. No leaks in the bathroom this morning, and the sink stopper ended up being trivial to fix. I used the oven for the first time last night. It was noticable when the gas would click on and off. I don't know if that's normal or not having only used electric stoves in the past. It didn't blow up so I'm happy.)
