• Vent@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Paying off principal is essentially shifting money from one pocket to another so it doesn’t really make sense to get a writeoff for that.

      • thesmokingman@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Why? If I am required to pay a certain amount of money back each month with interest and I have absolutely no way to wipe that debt away other than repaying it, why am I also getting taxed on that money as income? I am required to have a degree to earn money and I cannot pay for a degree without federal loans so why am I getting charged twice for them?

        • Kokanee08@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          The idea is that you were “given” that money when you got the loan and you weren’t taxed on the value of the loan when it was provided to yoy, so you can’t deduct it when you pay it back.

        • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          In at least some parts of Canada, for example, there are tuition credits which you can claim against income taxes later on.

          I am required to have a degree to earn money

          Not really true. You are required to have a degree to have a particular job of your choice. It’s up to your government to decide if having that choice is something it wants to encourage, with income tax breaks equivalent to the cost of tuition (the loan principle) or if that is a luxury that is taxed like any other luxury.

          The interest on loans is not a tax. It’s the expense of accessing capital immediatly. Again, it’s up to your government to decide if accessing capital immediatly is a necessity eligible for tax breaks, or a luxury that comes out of your after tax income.

          Also don’t forget consumption tax which may or may not apply (usually not on loan interest).

          Income tax is a tax on everything, basically.

          • thesmokingman@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            You can buy a house in Canada on a low skill job that doesn’t require a degree and doesn’t destroy your body? You certainly can’t in the US. Your statement is also incorrect in the US because of a flood of entry level folks with degrees. This has been a problem here since the 2008 crash. Jobs that didn’t require a degree ten years still don’t but won’t hire without one because of the hiring pool.

            You’re totally right on paper. The real world is not theory though.

  • Four_lights77@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Well…they had to pay off the politicians that would write these nice little laws for them so it’s not all free, right!? /sarcasm

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    The only way student loans work in the United States is if they were designed to be a financial tool to prevent educated members of the working class to save up enough money to actually do anything with besides surviving the next few months.

  • Plap plap 𓁑𓂸 @lemmyf.uk
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    1 year ago

    You can write off a private jet, which is terrible for carbon emissions, but you can’t write off an electric car?

    • cerothem@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      You can write off an electric car in the same way you can write off a jet. It’s a company expense and required to perform your role in that company.

      See the following steps to write anything at all off, note poor people may not have the prerequisite assets to make buying more assets tax free.

      Step 1, create marketing company Step 2, assign income to that company from your other companies (you do have other companies right?) Step 3, do fun shit with stuff you bought Step 4 have accountant write it all off as marketing delivery expenses and client schmoozing.

      • erogenouswarzone@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        This is exactly right. This is why rich people don’t pay taxes, because everything can be written off in service of a company. But it can only be written off against the taxes collected on the gains of the company, so unless your company makes money, it doesn’t really make sense.

  • pottedmeat7910@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Now that’s not fair. All of those school teachers and construction workers can write off their private jets too. Laws are for everyone!

    /s