Mark Twain is usually — and incorrectly — quoted with the phrase “No man and his money are safe while Congress is in session.  (The actually quote goes to 19th century NY politico Gideon Tucker, but I digress.)  There’s little to be said, in general, about TheDonald’s proposals yesterday, simply because there’s little substance to analyze.  However, I’m old enough to remember the last tax overhaul, in the early stages of the Reagan administration, and perhaps I can offer a few observations.  I’ll limit my mental meanderings to real Estate for now.

First, the Reagan tax re-hab (the 1986 Tax Act) was a disaster for real estate investing, particularly at the individual, atomistic investor level.  One of the “loopholes” to be cured was the elimination of deductibility of passive losses on real estate investments.  The real estate community reluctantly supported the tax act, in trade for increases in the deductibility of home mortgage interest and a guarantee that passive losses on then-existing real estate deals would be grandfathered.  Indeed, in the run-up to passage, there was a flurry of investing (by Main Street USA folks — the kind of folks who still, amazingly, support Trump) in just such “grandfathered” investments.  At the last minute, the grandfathering was removed, costing Main Street USA investors tons of alternative minimum tax payments on now-sour investments.  Some pundits suggest that this grandfathering-revocation, alone, led to the downfall of the Savings and Loan industry, but that excuse is a bit to simplistic.  It did, however, shut down the time share industry for a while.

Today, according to news reports, single family residences are enjoying record demand (which may or may not be good news).  The hottest market is among first-time buyers, and the demand is greatest among starter homes.  The Trump proposals would double the standard deduction for a married couple filing jointly.  While, on the surface this seems like a good idea, it will drastically shrink the number of tax payers who itemize mortgage interest and property taxes.  In short, for the biggest tranche of homebuyers, the biggest differentiation between ownership and renting would be effectively removed.  As a guy who invests in rental property, that’s nice, but the home building industry won’t react well.

Otherwise, I don’t see lowering the marginal Tax Rate on corporations as having much of an effect on real estate investing.  For one, most of those projects are either done thru tax-advantaged REITs or thru other pass-thru entities, like partnerships and LLCs.  Even if it did, the demand / supply of investment grade real estate depends on other factors, and slight changes in the tax rate may have an impact on the debt/equity mix, but not on the aggregate output of new commercial construction.  The ONE area most affected will be low income housing, which is funding in no small part by tax credits.  The value of those credits will be slashed, requiring a complete re-thinking in the finance side of low income housing.  The last time such a tax cut went into effect, it was a real mess for low income housing.

If I was the government, and I wanted to create good paying construction jobs, I’d embark on a long-term infrastructure redevelopment plan.  That would probably require actually raising tax rates a bit, but would have marvelous returns on investment for middle America.  But that’s just me….