Gilbert Gutknecht: “Not even the IRS says this. Only the Treasury Department uses this convoluted system called imputed income. Frankly, I…”

“Not even the IRS says this. Only the Treasury Department uses this convoluted system called imputed income. Frankly, I have to say, and I think I am a fairly well educated person, I was in politics before I came here, I had never heard the term ``imputed income'' before I came to Congress. It is worse than just the $30,000 example. What they have done is taken a family at $44,000, they have assumed they could rent their house for $1,000 a year, which adds $12,000 to that income, brings them up to $36,000, and then they assume someone in that income bracket would probably have at least a $20,000 capital gain. So they take someone who has approximately the median family income in the United States, and all of a sudden they have imputed them into the wealthy category, making more than $75,000 a year. It is one of the most convoluted, crazy things I have ever heard in my life, and yet only here in Washington can a crazy idea like that have any credence.”