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Old 06-28-2006, 02:34 PM
Joan.of.the.Arch Joan.of.the.Arch is offline
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Default Deductible mortgage interest?

What percentage of homeowners actually can deduct their mortgage interest from their federal income taxes?

I don't know where to find the statistics or the raw numbers to work with. Is the info out there? This is just a matter of curiosity.

We have never been able to do so for our household. (House payments, interest, and value are very small compared to income.) How about you?
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Old 06-28-2006, 02:47 PM
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Default Re: Deductible mortgage interest?

We own our home free and clear, but I just use the standard deduction, so even if I had a mortgage, I am sure my interest would not be more than the standard deduction. (If it was I couldn't afford it)
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Old 06-28-2006, 03:28 PM
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Default Re: Deductible mortgage interest?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joan.of.the.Arch
What percentage of homeowners actually can deduct their mortgage interest from their federal income taxes?

I don't know where to find the statistics or the raw numbers to work with. Is the info out there? This is just a matter of curiosity.

We have never been able to do so for our household. (House payments, interest, and value are very small compared to income.) How about you?

We deduct ours every year. Once I tote up interest along with property taxes, charitable contributions, etc. it is significantly more than the standard deduction for us.
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Old 06-29-2006, 09:01 AM
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Default Re: Deductible mortgage interest?

The big selling point for realtors/mortgage brokers, etc. is to tell you that your cost of borrowing is much lower because of the deductibilitly. But will you be able to deduct? That's another important question that should be asked.
Quote:
In 2002, of the 130 million federal tax returns filed, only 46 million were itemized. Of those, only 37 million taxpayers claimed the mortgage-interest deduction.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/03/pf/t...eres/index.htm

So out of the 65% that filed but didn't itemize, what percentage of them own a home (i.e. don't get to deduct)? I couldn't dig up any other stats on that.
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Old 06-29-2006, 12:01 PM
Joan.of.the.Arch Joan.of.the.Arch is offline
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Default Re: Deductible mortgage interest?

Interesting, what you did find, though, Jesse.
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Old 06-29-2006, 01:53 PM
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Default Re: Deductible mortgage interest?

There is also the problem of CAN deduct vs. DOES deduct. I bet a lot of people don't deduct mortgage interest because they're scared of the long form or simply don't know any better.
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Old 06-29-2006, 02:47 PM
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Default Re: Deductible mortgage interest?

Quote:
Originally Posted by 34saving
There is also the problem of CAN deduct vs. DOES deduct. I bet a lot of people don't deduct mortgage interest because they're scared of the long form or simply don't know any better.
I sure hope that's not too many people. With software nowadays, it's pretty easy to handle the basic tax stuff (Schedule A being one of those).
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Old 06-29-2006, 03:04 PM
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Default Re: Deductible mortgage interest?

Lots of people, like me, don't know how to handle software, heck i don't even know what it is!! But I have no mortgage interest. Isn't standard deduction around $9000? I would never pay out that much in mortgage interest.
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Old 06-30-2006, 03:22 PM
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Default Re: Deductible mortgage interest?

I believe it was 10k last year for the standard deduction.
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Old 06-30-2006, 03:38 PM
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Default Re: Deductible mortgage interest?

I think you are right. I just use the standard deduction.
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