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Is An Interest Deduction For Personal Debt A Tax Expenditure?, Alan Gunn

Journal Articles

In the United States, generally all interest payments are deductible. In Canada, by contrast, only interest that is incurred for a business purpose is deductible. In both countries, however, the deduction for interest paid on debts connected with the acquisition of a personal asset is commonly analyzed and defended as if it were a tax expenditure. Thus, in the United States the "Deductibility of Mortgage Interest on Owner-Occupied Homes" (which constitutes about 60 per cent of all deductions for interest paid) and the "Deductibility of Interest on Consumer Credit" are included in all published tax expenditure lists. In Canada, the …