[Shivetya]

Wealth transfer because of the tax code occurs all the time, every day. Yet some here I can guarantee would scream bloody murder if they lost their piece of that wealth transfer. Two of which are easy, the ACA and EV tax credits, both transfer wealth but in different ways. The first from the young and healthy who usually are at the beginning of their income generating years and hopefully their lowest pay in their career to those at career and life end where they might have the homes paid for, retirement incomes, and more. Then the EV tax credit gives to people making purchases of cars beyond the reach of average workers.

What is the point? The tax code created this imbalance and continues to do so as it is the number one means by which politicians separate us. They play us off each other and the tax code allows the to reward or punish.

Simplify the tax code so that anyone with a high school education can see the money and that will lead to people clamoring for a change.

[zanny]

Which is why it will never happen. It is against every elected representative with voting power to fix the American tax code to do so because they gain significant power with a system nobody can interpret without significant mental and time commitments.

You basically have to elect a majority of honest politicians to congress all running on the platform of fixing the tax code, and if you managed to perform that miracle greater than walking on water while turning it to wine, you would still be conceding literally every other political position to them because you had to do the most insane systemic uprising of policy in American history since prohibition, and anyone elected to vote for that would have their own anterior motives and agenda to replace the power vacuum from losing the tax morass.

[sokoloff]

There are more EVs sold with an after-credits price under $25K than over $50K.

And there's an awful lot of people driving $25K new ICE cars, so I can't agree that the EV credit is mostly going to cars that are beyond the reach of average workers. (I also don't think that the average worker is financially well-advised to buy a new $25K car, but they're doing it in droves, so...)

[woobar]

But this is the point. Without the credit they will not be able to afford $32.5K car.

And btw, average worker makes $35K, and pays federal tax up to $3200. So their "after credit" price would be close to $30K.

[sokoloff]

Fair point, though those average workers who can do math and plan ahead would lease the car, where NMAC (or the competitors' equivalent) would purchase the car and take the $7500 federal credit as a cap cost reduction and the lease payments would reflect the full value of that credit.

I would be in favor of a simplified tax code, even if it takes away the mortgage interest deduction (mine is partially phased out already), the EV credits, etc (and especially if it gets rid of ACA as my health care plan changed dramatically for the worse and by an amount far greater than historically normal rate increases).