[Spivak]

You are thinking about this wrong. When you are in a situation where you take the standard dedication then you suddenly lose the benefit of doing any tax-deductible actions. So teachers across the board were immediately disincentivized from buying school supplies because it’s effectively not tax deductible anymore.

I rant about this all the time with charitable donations. Any behavior the government wants to incentivize through tax policy — charitable donations, student loan interest, IRA contributions should be credits that apply in addition to the standard deduction because otherwise there’s no incentive for most people.

[DangitBobby]

Are you really suddenly not going to spend $500 on your students because now only $450 of it goes towards goods instead of the full $500? That doesn't really make any sense to me. Especially if the standard deduction grants you an additional $1k that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

[satronaut]

Honestly though, we also need to ask why teachers are having to spend money out of pocket at all. We pay all these taxes, shouldn't the schools be able to afford photo copies?

[Spivak]

By that reasoning there was never even a point to having the deduction in the first place.

[DangitBobby]

If you believe incentives are the only point of deductions, then sure. I believe part of the reason for deductions is to provide some relief to people who are spending for their work or for the state. In any case, I'll take favorable taxes however I can get them, even if it means I no longer benefit more from itemized deductions over the standard deduction. Especially since the standard deduction is much easier.

I wonder how many teachers ever benefited enough from itemized deductions to take it?

[satronaut]

I think you're right on how the policy works, but look at the math. The standard deduction doubled, so as an equation New_deduction > old_deduction+school supplies

Teachers came out ahead

[zardo]

And they come out even more ahead if they stop buying classroom supplies.

[satronaut]

no argument there. Would you agree with me that it'd be better if the schools provided all the materials that a teacher needs, instead of them paying out of pocket for supplies? I'll sometimes pay out of pocket for work supplies but I just get reimbursed so it's no big deal.

[zardo]

I would if the source of the funds remained at the federal level.