Personal service deductions

This idea came from a family legend, that my grandparents, rich folks who went broke in the Depression, nonetheless kept some servants until the war because they were family and had nowhere to go.

It also comes from the notion that once upon a time there was dignity in personal service.

Why not a tax deduction for payments to a person who works for you at home? The only requirement would be compliance with withholding tax and Social Security requirements - using a simplified form that could be completed once, when one's personal tax return is prepared. Maybe a cap on the amount paid and the number of people per household.

The idea is to put people to work, sure, but also to take them out of the cash economy, put them onto tax rolls, give them Social Security accounts, bring them into the system.

The deduction would, in theory, have a negative overall tax revenue effect since it would push the income to someone with a lower bracket. But it would encourage people to hire gardeners, housekeepers, caregivers, babysitters, tutors, you name it.

I suppose there are some who would think encouraging a new generation of servants is going backward. But my grandmother had a houseman named Lindsay. He was a distinguished man who greatly enriched my grandmother's life, and mine, and eventually retired from service to a home back in England. What is wrong with that picture?

It's way not politically correct. (As I hope many of these will be.) So I suppose it would take a courageous minority politician to promote it. Barak Obama? [Sic. This was originally written long before he ran for President - hence the bad spelling.]

Opening shot

This blog is a place where I can publish the public policy/legislative ideas that I can't shake. Some are hopelessly impractical. Some would take political courage (I know: where?). Some may be wacky. I hope many are simple but few are obvious.

It seems like a more interesting way to get them off my chest than writing my congressman or a letter to the editor. And this way, no condescending reply.