Full Description

For many, nothing is as nerve-racking as buying your first home--that is, until it is to time prepare your taxes for the first time after the purchase. Mortgage interest deductions, property tax deductions, closing costs, depreciation, itemizations and Schedule A are all terms that the new owner may be completely unfamiliar with. The First Time Homeowner’s Tax Guide can help.

This tax guide explains all the rules associated with home ownership when preparing your tax return, with instructions for completing the necessary forms. It focuses on the changes most new homeowners will face when having the ability to now deduct home mortgage interest and property taxes from their individual tax return, and takes the new homeowner through the process step-by-step.

Plus, in addition to helping the first-time buyer, it helps the first-time seller with the special capital gains rules of selling a home, as well as giving crucial tax advice to the first-time real estate investor.

Table of Contents

Part I: Personal Residence

Introduction

Chapter 1: Purchasing Your Personal Residence
- Settlement Fees and Closing Costs
- Points
- Moving Expenses

Chapter 2: Owning Your Personal Residence
- Mortgage Payments
- Real Estate Taxes
- Repairs and Improvements
- Equity
- Refinancing
- Cooperatives
- Condominiums

Chapter 3: Selling Your Personal Residence
- The 1997 Tax Relief Act
- Determining Your Gain or Loss
- Step-by-Step Illustration

Chapter 4: Home Tax and Estate Planning
- Distribution from Retirement Plan
- Before You Refinance
- Trade Down
- Reverse Mortgages

Part II: Residential Rental Property

Chapter 5: Purchasing Your Rental Property
- Owning a Business
- The Cost of Rental Property
- Step-by-Step Illustration
- Settlement Fees and Closing Costs

Chapter 6: Owning Your Rental Property
- Reporting Rental Income
- Reporting Rental Expenses
- Rental Loss
- Rules for Condominiums and Cooperatives
- Comprehensive Illustration

Chapter 7: Selling Your Rental Property
- Differences Between Selling a Personal Home and a Rental Property
- Rules on Losses
- Rules on Gains
- Determining Your Gain or Loss
- Calculating the Tax
- Keeping Records
- Reporting the Sale of Rental Property
- Step-by-Step Illustration

Chapter 8: Multiple-Unit Homes
- Treatment of Tax Deductions
- Selling

Chapter 9: Personal and Rental Use of Home
- Tax Rules on Vacation and Second Homes
- Special Rules on Deductions

Chapter 10: Business Use of a Home
- Meeting the Tax Rules for Home Businesses
- Treatment of Tax Deductions
- Depreciation
- Deduction Limit
- Where to Deduct
- Day Care Facility
- Employees
- Sale of Home

Chapter 11: Tax Loopholes
- Non-Taxable Exchange
- Tax Break on Sale of Rental Property

Glossary

Appendix A: Tax Treatment of Personal Home by Each State

Appendix B: Tax Treatment of Residential Rental Property by Each State

Excerpt

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