If Corporations Are People, People Should Get Corp. Benefits

Since the Citizens United decision by the US Supreme Court last January, corporations have had their ‘corporate personhood’ further extended with regards to political contributions. This has dramatically opened the corporate coffers for politicians, as has been written about at great length pro and con by analysts, and it is not the purpose of this to revisit or amplify any of those analyses.

Here, however, is a twist to the ‘corporate personhood’ fiction…why not extend those benefits corporations enjoy to natural persons…that is, you and I. Corporations can write off interest expense against income, yet natural persons are generally only afforded this valuable tax deduction on mortgage interest. (The limits are too high on some other types to really help most taxpayers. Of course, years ago, you could deduct interest on auto loans and consumer credit like credit cards until Congress wiped away these in order to take in more tax money.)

I suggest that since corporations are persons and have nearly all the rights of natural persons, the reverse ought to be true as well. By virtue of personhood, natural persons should be able to deduct ALL interest against income! Why should natural persons be denied this valuable right when corporate persons take advantage of it all the time? Limiting natural persons’ ability to deduct interest curtails their free speech rights, as they may need to charge goods or services, or purchase a car via a loan in order to express their free speech. Shouldn’t the Constitutional right to free speech trump statutes and the tax code?

I’ll start deducting all my interest right after you do without repercussions!