Do you know how to reduce your taxes? Tax Deductions for Homeowners

Tax Deductions For Homeowners

By Jeff Baxter Mortgage Team

January 30, 2015

You have heard it before. Owning a home is a great tax deduction. It is one thing to make a general statement. It is another to understand the specifics of howowning a home may lower your tax liability. Below is a list of important points that every homeowner should know. Note that this is not a complete list of allowable deductions.

Itemizing deductions. In order todeduct your mortgage payment, you must itemize deductions rather than take the standard deduction. As a general example, if your allowable standard deduction is $5,000 and you only have $3,000 in itemized deductions, you will be better off taking the standard deduction.  However, if the home gives you an “extra” $10,000 in itemized deductions, you are better off itemizing. Note that the “excess” $2,000 ($5,000 minus $3,000) will not garner any benefit because you are now itemizing.

The housing payment. The housing payment is generally comprised of four segments: Principal, interest, taxes and insurance (PITI).  Generally, you can deduct two of these—mortgage interest and taxes. The good news is in most cases these two items comprise the greatestmajority of the total payment. For example here are some fictitious numbers given to illustrate this point:

100 Principal
1,000 Interest
400 Taxes
50 Insurance
$1,550 Total Payment (PITI)

Of this example, $1,400 out of $1,550 is deductible, or approximately 90% of the payment.

Again, using fictitious numbers, if the above homeowner was in a 25% tax bracket, the home payment would actually be reduced by approximately $350 per month after taxes.  There are a few exceptions or requirements with regard to this rule—

• The deduction is only allowable for principal residences and second homes.  Homes which are rented out (investor properties) have additional tax benefits.
• You cannot deduct interest on any loan amount above $1 million.
• You can only deduct interest on a mortgage which is taken out to purchase, build or improve a property. You may be able to deduct amortgage insurance payment under certain conditions depending upon the year that you paid them.

Points. A point is a cost charged by a mortgage company for originating a mortgage and/or buying the rate down on that mortgage. Generally points are deductable in the year that they are paid when they are used to purchase a primary residence. If the purpose of the mortgage loan is to refinance an existing loan, then the points may still be deductable, but must be spread out over the life of the loan, unless the refinance was to improve the present home. There are additional restrictions regarding the deducting of points which are not delineated herein.

Investor properties. Those who own properties for the purpose ofgenerating income can deduct the cost of expenses of carrying the property against the income of that property. Allowable expenses would include interest, insurance, taxes,maintenance, depreciation and more.  Again using a fictitious example…

$1,000 Rental Income (monthly)
-800 Interest, taxes and insurance
-50 Maintenance
-100 Depreciation
$50 monthly “net” income or $600 for the year.

Sale of the home. Another major tax benefit is achieved when someone sells their home. The profits of the sale of a principal residence are excluded from income up to a maximum of $500,000 for joint filers, including married couples, and $250,000 for individuals. You must have owned the home at least two years and used it as your primary residence at least two out of the past five years.

The tax benefits of owning a home are “great” as advertised. You are advised to get with your tax advisor for greater clarification with regard to these general rules.