At the risk of jumping the shark, we press on with our fourth installment of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform (PAPFTR). In addition to some cool tax-saving ideas put forth by the panel, they’ve also presented eliminating or reducing several popular tax deductions, including:

• State and local tax deduction – PAPFTR proposed wiping out the deduction for state and local taxes. While this probably won’t have as much of a significant impact on our loyal readership in places like Kansas, many in California and other high-tax areas would be adversely affected.
• Casualty loss deduction – after the hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast and Florida earlier this year, eliminating casualty losses hasn’t proved to be too popular
• Charitable gift deduction – gifts would still be deductible, but only the amount that exceeds 1% of a taxpayer’s total income
• Standard deduction – PAPFTR suggested eliminating the standard deduction altogether, thereby forcing every taxpayer to itemize their deductions.

As one of our astute readers, Harley, (not from Kansas) pointed out last week, “Whatever the government gives with one hand, it takes away with the other hand.”

(For more information on jumping the shark, click here.)