Thursday, January 28, 2010
My children are already tired of listening to my husband and me complain about our taxes, and we haven't even filed them yet! Every year, we try to find all of the deductions that we qualify for, because we want to hold on to our hard-earned money! We work hard all year, and it seems like such a shame to hand over thousands of dollars that we've worked so hard to earn. I understand that many services in this country are funded by our tax dollars, I just want to make sure that I'm not "donating" more than necessary.
The First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit allows homeowners to receive up to an $8,000 tax credit. This credit has also been extended to now include homeowners who wish to "move on" after 5 years of living in their current property. If you're a homeowner who has lived in your current home consecutively for 5 of the past 8 years, you can receive up to a $6,500 tax credit. There are eligiblily requirements including income and purchase date. It's estimated that approximately 2 million people will utilize this tax credit, so find out if you're eligible to take advantage of this opportunity.
We rented a home for years, and everyone kept telling us that as soon as we bought a home, we could deduct our mortgage interest. Well, that sounded like a great idea, but we never had enough to itemize, and we always took the standard deduction. So, once again, we weren't able to take advantage of a tax break. Most of us are living on a budget, and every penny counts, so I wanted to share this information with you in hopes that it could help save money on your taxes if you're buying a home for the first time, or you qualify as an exsisting homeowner.
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