The author has 3 children, and that's a _household_ income of $150000. 150 grand is not a huge family income to support 2 adults and 3 kids; as a country, we give people tax breaks to encourage having children and to help support people who make that choice.
Calling this "Houdini-like" (author's words) tax hacking seems like a bit of a misunderstanding of deliberate social policy!
Yes, and an awful lot of families in Africa and Southeast Asia are doing this on 1/150th that amount. With more kids. Your point?
The existence of more extreme poverty doesn’t change the fact that 150k/yr is not a ton of money to support a family of 5 in most American metro areas.
Small point, but the average household size in the US is 2.5, on half of the 5 people in this household, so you really can't compare their family income to family income statistics for much smaller families.https://www.statista.com/statistics/183648/average-size-of-h...
I think this will become a pedantic argument, but without defining loophole, we can’t say they exist or don’t.
Presumably a law is written with some intent.
When that intent or spirit is broken because of poor construction or poor foresight in the text of a law, a lot of people call that a loophole. I think it is a fair definition.
Childcare for 2 children under the age of 5 in my area will cost roughly $4000. Mortgage for a very modest 4 bedroom house is another $2500. $1500 for all the rest starts to get very tight. Insurance as a category alone can eat half of that. There’s not much left to gamble or drug with.
Calling this "Houdini-like" (author's words) tax hacking seems like a bit of a misunderstanding of deliberate social policy!