THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, January 1, 1997            TAG: 9612310005
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A16  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                            LENGTH:   30 lines

MEANS TESTING FOR DEDUCTIONS OPPOSED

Sue Capers' column, ``Means-testing for age tax deductions'' (Another View, Dec. 24), caught my attention. Ms. Capers discusses this issue in terms of presents and gifts. She refers to the taxpayer as a giver. These terms seem strange to me when applied to taxes that we are required to pay. Gifts and presents are what I give to chosen charities or individuals throughout the year.

Ms. Capers refers to the Earned Income Tax Credit as rewarding work. She states that some of us - through hard work, ingenuity and perhaps a bit of luck - have achieved financial security. She goes on to explain how we should then be deprived of our hard-earned security through a means-testing method of taxation.

Ms. Capers goes on to state that, thanks to our government recognizing and addressing the poverty of our elderly, they have moved from the group with the highest poverty rate in the '60s to the group with the lowest poverty rate in the '90s. Maybe the hard work and ingenuity moved us from one group to the other, not the goodness of the government.

Everyone I know in my age group shares what they have willingly with others. Most are opposed to a method of taxation designed simply for the redistribution of wealth by the goverment.

LEO G. RUFFING

Portsmouth, Dec. 24, 1996