Here's one of the most appalling stories you'll ever see: tax credits that enable ambitious tax-avoiders to get free golf carts courtesy of the United States government. The Wall Street Journal sums it up well (subscription required): "We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic."The tax credit of $4,200 to $5,200 is enough to offset the entire cost of some lower-end golf carts. And if you hold onto it for a year and then sell it, you can actually make money once you include the benefit of the tax credit. According to the Journal, "The golf-cart boom has followed an IRS ruling that golf carts qualify for the electric-car credit as long as they are also road worthy. These qualifying golf carts are essentially the same as normal golf carts save for adding some safety features, such as side and rearview mirrors and three-point seat belts. They typically can go 15 to 25 miles per hour."
Some savvy golf cart stores are advertising this loophole aggressively to move inventory, as well they should. The blame for this absolute travesty of taxpayer waste lies solely with Congress -- and also with the IRS, which is apparently brain dead enough to think that golf carts are basically the same as electric cars.
Alas, this is the problem with all these social engineering-motivated tax credits: They waste a ton of time (receipt collecting, reading the law, audits, etc.), create nothing, and inevitably lead to a number of opportunities for loophole-minded tax dodgers to dump the tax burden onto the rest of us.
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