Tax neutrality should treat renting and owning homes identically

Evidence

I argue for neutrality as one potential reform goal, as I did for marriage. Just as getting married is a personal choice that should not change your tax liability, neither should your taxes be affected by whether you choose to buy or rent your home. In other words, either mortgage interest (and real property taxes) and rent should both be deductible, or neither should be—and gains on the sale of a home should be subject to the progressive tax system like the sale of any other property would be. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 1285

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the neutrality principle for housing tax reform and extends it symmetrically to the marriage reform in the earlier book.