Who Do Tax Breaks Benefit?

How to tax income is a huge part of our political discourse these days, but a lot of details get lost in ideological debates, so I thought I'd look at how deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions work, and whose mortgage interest and nonprofit donations are ACTUALLY deductible.

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[Nhojneirbo]

An educational video under four minutes deserves an award! 🥇

[lafayettethebaguette]

i love how john is very clear in his language that he knows not everyone watching is from the US. so many internet things just assume their audience is 100% american

[bibiliophiled]

Having followed you since ~2009, I just wanted to say that I greatly appreciate you and your brother, the Nerdfighter community, and all that it stands for. I am grateful to have people like you to look up to and try to emulate in my own life. All the best.

[ciarasookarry]

Are fishing boat proceeds tax deductible?

[jonah]

"Bless you" - actually me in the middle of my school's library where I am now getting some weird glances from the group working on their calculus homework two tables down

[rowanprice]

A. Your collar.... My goodness!

B. I think it might be easier for me to understand exactly what's going on if I could see like a graphical representation of what's going on. Right now the families are very abstract and it's hard (for me at least) to keep track of their incomes etc.
Neat concept though!

[BethanyStitches]

Ooh, another new video when I expected it. I actually really love consistency.

[SciencewithKatie]

Taxes seem so much more complicated in the US than in the UK!

[Nhojneirbo]

Somehow being poor enough to get a tax refund doesn’t seem so special anymore.

[AyaMohamed-ijhu]

I just wanna say I love you JOHN & HANK.
You are inspiration to me

[Hhhhhhhhh]

This is really interesting because my spouse and I have always had different views of tax “kickbacks” and your video really makes it clear that it’s because my family is in the 15% bracket and his family is well into the 33% bracket - no wonder we have different ideas about he benefits of owning a home & charitable giving! I find that there are many differences in how we perceive money but this video was very insightful on one key feature that continues to stir a difference in opinion between us. Thanks!

[andyhartley]

I was trying to work out how the same tax dedutable donations work in the UK, but suddenly realised we have a diferrent system where the charity can effectively claim back the tax that was paid on your dontaion amount - it's called Gift Aid. We also don't have a standard deduction, but a personal allowance (currently £11, 850) which is how much you can earn before income tax is taken.

[JoshuaHillerup]

I think the American distrust of government in part stems from how complicated you made your government.

[JimFortune]

So, the tax code is structured in such a way as to benefit the really rich. Who'd a thunk.

[poorplayer]

Yup John, taxes have changed a lot in the last 40 years. And, thanks for taking the time to explain a little about taxes to the younger crowd. One of the insidious affects of changes to the tax code was that they helped to increase the rate of income inequality. The last few decades have had the effect of making that inequality loosely analogous to the increasing rate of speed of the expansion of space.

[rowantree]

Ok great video and all but oh my god PLEASE SNEEZE INTO YOUR ELBOW NOT YOUR HAND

[machiel]

Educational videos are my favorite! Thanks John!

[yaell]

Mr Green, I just wanted to thank you for your amazing books, who changed my life. A lot of admiration from a french teenage fan

[GatlinGang]

I love that you didn't edit out your sneeze, which coukd have easily been done. I love that instead of trying to edit yourself into the best version of yourself, you instead share with us the most human version of yourself. It make me feel so very grateful for these videos. You are a person that I really respect and admire, and you continue to inspire and educate me. Thank you.

Taxes stress me out! And I'm almost 38. I don't like being afraid of an audit. I don't like being afraid of bad stuff that I didn't even do.

Nerdfighters, if you play FIFA mobile, I created a league and named it Nerdfighteria. I'm not the best at the game, but I've been having a lot of fun and would be super excited to see some of you there. If you want, that is. :)

Best wishes!

[Vicioussama]

The overwhelming number of politicians are rich, don't be surprised they set it up to benefit them.