mortgage deduction 和收入是间接的挂钩..

故意搞得复杂起来，所以很多人不知道： DON’T FORGET THE INCOME PHASEOUT KILLER TOO Back in 2011, if you have an adjusted gross income of over $166,800, your mortgage interest starts to get phased out. For every $100 of income over $166,800 you lose $3 of itemized deduction X 33.3% up to a maximum loss of 80 percent of your itemized deductions. Talk about another overly complicated rule the IRS/government has implemented. Example: You make $266,800 and you have $50,000 in mortgage interest deductions. Take $266,800 – $166,800 = $100,000. Then take $100,000 X 3% = $3,000. Finally, take $3,000 X 33.3% = $999. You can now only deduct $49,001 ($50,000 – $999) from your income instead of originally $50,000. Questions and conclusions you should have: 1) Where the hell did the government come up with $166,800 income limit as the start of the phaseout? Obama is targeting raising taxes on singles making over $200,000 and couples making over $250,000 (why not $400,000 since two couples making $200,000 = $400,000!?). Supposedly only 2% of Americans earn over $200,000, so I GUESS the target is somewhat reasonable, even though 45% of Americans pay no federal income taxes. But $166,800? Why not $150,000 or $162,300? 2) What is the point of multiplying by 1/3 after multiplying by 3% the income you make over $166,800? Beats the shit out of me! All one has to do is instead of multiply the “overage income” by 3% then by 33.3%, just multiply the overage income by 1% to get the SAME AMOUNT ($100,000 X 1% = $1,000)! You can see through this example how inefficient the government and our tax system is. They add one extra layer to complicate things. They are just waiting for you to mess up your taxes so they can get someone after you and charge you a penalty. Smart by them! - See more at: http://www.financialsamurai.com/mortgage-interest-deduction-limit-and-income-phaseout/#sthash.CT7bb0ub.dpuf