I’ll be damned. Congress actually passed a law that is going to benefit me. After all these years of being unable to take advantage of, well, almost every tax credit, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act is actually going to give me a break. I get the equivalent of an interest-free loan that I can pay back over 15 years, starting in 2011.
As a first-time home buyer, I will be able to claim a tax credit of $7500 on my 2008 taxes. And it’s dollar-for-dollar, so if my tax burden is $10,000 after all the deductions and taxes are figured, and I’ve already paid $5000, I’ll still get a $2500 refund.
Except I’m also going to be able to deduct four months’ mortgage, property taxes, and other deductions for the year. So I should be getting the biggest refund ever, and boy, is it going to come in handy after tapping out my funds to buy the condo.
Watch Meryl get her taxes prepared faster than ever before. The second I get those W-2s, I’m going to have them done.
Hooray for you! Home ownership here you come.
Bout time Congress did something right. Home ownership does have it’s rewards.
And I never let a sizable refund speed up my doing my taxes, seems I always wait til the last minute.
Hmmm… Essentially you’re getting this because you were lucky enough to be a first-time homebuyer during a downturn. Which means you may also be getting a good deal on a house anyway, depending on your market. While personally I wish you every advantage, as a taxpayer who’s been paying his mortgage for eight years, I must confess that it feels a bit random. Perhaps I misunderstand.
Yep. It’s all in the timing. But for the first time in my life, I actually get to take advantage of Federal largesse.
That being said, I was looking to buy last year, but decided that I needed to pay down debt and get more stable financially before I could buy a new home. In fact, this one came along six months earlier than I’d planned, and I’ve had to hustle to get the money. The tax credit is going to help me immensely in the next four months, and again when I get a refund.
As a taxpayer who’s been paying taxes all her life and gotten zero breaks for paying rent, I have to say I’m not sorry that I finally get to get a mortgage break not just once, but twice.
The 7500 tax credit is apparently the incentive that Congress thinks will help people decide to buy this year and next. Yeah, whatever. Yes, it’s random. And yes, I lucked out. It’s my year for being on the upswing, I guess.