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Tax Advantages

I am not a tax advisor – but I often get questions about the tax advantages of home ownership.  The below deductions assume you choose to itemize your deductions instead of taking the standard deduction.  Here are the benefits:

1. Deduct interest:

When filing your income taxes, you may deduct the interest you pay on your primary residence.  You’ll receive a form 1098 which will declare the total interest paid in a calendar year.  To get an idea of the interest you will pay annually, take a look at your amortization schedule.

2. Deduct property taxes

You may also deduct your property taxes on your primary residence when filing your income taxes. Note that you cannot deduct more than a combined $10,000 in property tax plus local income tax. More info on property taxes is here

Let’s say you earn $100k and you own a home with a $400k loan at 4% and pay $4000 a year in property taxes.

Your deduction from your income taxes will be in the first year of ownership:

$4000 in property taxes

$15,871 in interest, based on a $400k loan at 4% first year’s interest

Total deduction: $4000+$15,871=$19,871 deducted from income taxes.

If the buyer is in the 25% tax bracket, that $19,871 saves them 25% of that figure in income taxes, which is an annual savings of $4967.75.  This replaces the annual savings of just taking the standard deduction which reduces income taxes by $12,000, so the savings would have been $3000.  The net savings in comparing the two is $4967.75-$3000=$1,967.75 in the first year, or $163.97/mo.

The interest you pay on your loan will decrease going forward, so the tax savings will decrease as you continue to pay your loan amount down.

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