Tax Breaks for Interest Deductions

A long time ago, the internal Revenue Service allowed tax payers to deduct all of their interest costs - including personal credit card debt. Then Congress changed the tax code, and today, you may only deduct certain kinds of interest. And that is the kind you want to have. However, some tax breaks can help classify more of your interest to make it deductible.

The most evident deduction is your house loan: You can deduct interest on up to $1 million of mortgages used to acquire or improve your main residence and one other house. However be careful in case you have a high adjusted gross income (AGI), in which case your mortgage interest write-off might be phased out. For 2010 - 2012, there's no phase-out but if this tax break isn't expanded, tax breaks is needed as up to 80% of the deduction might be phased out for high income tax payers.

You may also deduct interest on home equity loans totaling as much as $100,000, regardless of how you use the loan proceeds - and this is above and beyond the $1 million limit just described. But, the home equity financial debt and your 1st home loan combined can't exceed the fair market worth of the house.

And do not ignore holiday houses in your tax planning. This might go without saying, simply because for most people, a holiday home is really a second home, and as pointed out above, the mortgage interest on a second home is tax-deductible. But it is really worth mentioning, simply because if you rent out the vacation home part of the time, the tax rules can be confusing. Tax breaks will get your more deductions for a vacation home that is rented out more than two weeks yearly.

You can't deduct interest on car loans, credit cards and other consumer debt. However, intelligent tax planning will have you can take out a home equity loan and make use of the money to, say, pay off credit card balances or buy a automobile - which would make the interest deductible. This might potentially be considered a great debt management technique, with 1 caveat: The interest on house equity loans is deductible for alternative minimum tax (AMT) functions as long as you use the proceeds to obtain, construct or improve a primary or second residence. Which means that in the event you get a $25,000 house equity mortgage to purchase a brand new automobile, you can deduct the interest under the normal tax regulations, but not under the AMT tax rules. However, in the event you spend the $25,000 to modernize your cellar, you can deduct the interest under both the regular tax regulations and AMT tax rules.

Other tax planning methods consist of utilizing house equity finance a business in which situation the above limitation don't apply as the interest would be business interest. Similarly, smart tax breaks will have you utilize money in a way that cannot be tracked as per the over use of home equity to buy a vehicle. In the event you tap home equity, use These money for a legitimate non-AMT purpose (re-carpeting the home) and utilize OTHER cash for the brand-new car.