No matter who wins the presidential election, tax deductions might be in jeopardy. President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney may not see eye to eye on actual income tax rates, but they do both want to limit tax deductions and other tax preferences. Obama offered a detailed plan as part of his budget proposals, describing a limit on the tax benefit of deductions for taxpayers with taxable income above about $213,000 and $266,000 for couples filing joint tax returns. Romney hasn't committed to a specific plan but has proposed scrapping the alternative minimum tax, which limits higher-income people's ability to use deductions to lower their tax liability, and has floated three possible limits — $17,000, $25,000 and $50,000. To enact any reform, the two chairmen of the two Congressional tax writing committees will be as important as the man in the Oval Office — raising the stakes in the partisan battles for control of the House and Senate.
