George Davis: Tax intent

Regarding the March 26 news article “Tax break for seniors advances”: The legislature is discussing a further tax cut. We all like tax cuts. That is, almost all.

We, mostly elderly,with medical expenses hope we don’t get slammed again if this so-called cut goes as the last one did. The unthought-through effort to reduce taxes in 2013 increased taxes for many of us as a result of disallowing deductions that are allowed by the federal government tax rules.

For those who don’t have a mortgage to write off or other major deductions but do have major medical expenses, removing that deduction has increased the tax burden by 20 to 40 percent. Unintended consequence?

One can only hope that this was not done intentionally but is rather an oversight that will be corrected soon and alas not repeated in the next tax “cut.”

This story was originally published April 3, 2015 at 5:04 PM with the headline "George Davis: Tax intent."