Quote:
Originally Posted by wittynickname
COVID relief currently includes a tax break for corporate meal expenses. We're giving corporations a break on their taxes for spending exorbitant amounts on expensive meals and drinks. Currently there are tax breaks for yacht owners. There are billions of dollars in tax revenue lost every single year because the IRS is horrendously underfunded, which means they don't have the resources to audit the wealthy who aren't properly paying their taxes.
But we're gonna split hairs over the idea that maybe some people who make <75k a year might possibly spend their big $2k on something that isn't rent/food. God forbid.
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The meals tax break is intended to help the restaurant industry, which badly needs help. Granted, it's probably not a very effective way to do it. It was also part of the deal to reduce income requirements for the EIC that people may have lost due to not working as much in 2020.
The meals tax break will likely result in less a billion of lost revenue. $2000 checks to everyone will cost in the 400-500 billion range. One bad idea doesn't justify the need for another much more expensive bad idea.
If it was truly <$75k earners who'd qualify, then it would probably better target the people who need it. But the $2000 proposal only starts phasing out at households making >$150k and doesn't completely phase out until $350k for some families.
These one time payments took from money that was going to go to propping up unemployment. How can you argue that is a good idea for helping the people that need it?