Important Reminders

District of Columbia first-time homebuyer credit.   The credit for first-time homebuyers in the District of Columbia has been extended to include property purchased before January 1, 2004. For more information about this credit, see page 2.

Limit on itemized deductions.   Certain itemized deductions (including real estate taxes and home mortgage interest) are limited if your adjusted gross income is more than $137,300 ($68,650 if you are married filing separately). For more information, see the instructions for Schedule A (Form 1040).

Limit on mortgage interest credit.   Your mortgage interest credit for 2002 can offset both your regular tax (after reduction by any foreign tax credit) and your alternative minimum tax for the year, if any. See Figuring the Credit under Mortgage Interest Credit.

Photographs of missing children.   The Internal Revenue Service is a proud partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Photographs of missing children selected by the Center may appear in this publication on pages that would otherwise be blank. You can help bring these children home by looking at the photographs and calling 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) if you recognize a child.

Introduction

This publication provides tax information for first-time homeowners. Your first home may be a mobile home, a single-family house, a townhouse, a condominium, or a cooperative apartment.

The following topics are explained.

• How you treat items such as settlement and closing costs, real estate taxes, home mortgage interest, and repairs.
• What you can and cannot deduct on your tax return.
• The tax credit you can claim if you received a mortgage credit certificate when you bought your home.
• Why you should keep track of adjustments to the basis of your home. (Your home's basis generally is what it costs; adjustments include the cost of any improvements you might make.)
• What records you should keep as proof of the basis and adjusted basis.

District of Columbia first-time homebuyer credit.   You may be able to claim a one-time tax credit of up to $5,000 if you buy a main home in the District of Columbia. You must reduce the basis of your home by the amount of the credit you claim. Only purchases after August 4, 1997, and before January 1, 2004, qualify for this credit.

The credit is not allowed if you acquired your home from certain related persons or by gift or inheritance.

You qualify for the credit if you (and your spouse if you are married) did not have an ownership interest in a main home in the District of Columbia for at least 1 year before buying the new home. Individuals with modified adjusted gross income of $90,000 or more ($130,000 or more in the case of a joint return) cannot claim the credit. Individuals with modified adjusted gross income between $70,000 and $90,000 (between $110,000 and $130,000 in the case of a joint return) can claim only a reduced credit.

Use Form 8859, District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit, to figure your credit. See the form and its instructions for more information.

Comments and suggestions.   We welcome your comments about this publication and your suggestions for future editions.

You can e-mail us while visiting our web site at www.irs.gov.

You can write to us at the following address:

Internal Revenue Service
Tax Forms and Publications
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We respond to many letters by telephone. Therefore, it would be helpful if you would include your daytime phone number, including the area code, in your correspondence.

Useful Items You may want to see:

Publication

• 523   Selling Your Home
• 527   Residential Rental Property
• 547   Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts
• 551   Basis of Assets
• 555   Community Property
• 587   Business Use of Your Home
• 936   Home Mortgage Interest Deduction

Form (and Instructions)

• 8396   Mortgage Interest Credit

See How To Get Tax Help, near the end of this publication, for information about getting publications and forms.

What You Can and Cannot Deduct

To deduct expenses of owning a home, you must file Form 1040 and itemize your deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040). If you itemize, you cannot take the standard deduction. See the Form 1040 instructions if you have questions about whether to itemize your deductions or claim the standard deduction.

This section explains what expenses you can deduct as a homeowner. It also points out expenses that you cannot deduct. There are two primary discussions: real estate taxes and home mortgage interest. Generally, your real estate taxes and home mortgage interest are included in your house payment.

Your house payment.   If you took out a mortgage (loan) to finance the purchase of your home, you probably have to make monthly house payments. Your house payment may include several costs of owning a home. The only costs you can deduct are real estate taxes actually paid to the taxing authority and interest that qualifies as home mortgage interest. These are discussed in more detail later.

Here are some expenses, which may be included in your house payment, that cannot be deducted.

• Fire or homeowner's insurance premiums.
• FHA mortgage insurance premiums.
• The amount applied to reduce the principal of the mortgage.

Minister's or military housing allowance.   If you are a minister or a member of the uniformed services and receive a housing allowance that is not taxable, you still can deduct your real estate taxes and your home mortgage interest. You do not have to reduce your deductions by your nontaxable allowance.

Nondeductible payments.   You cannot deduct any of the following items.

• Insurance, including fire and comprehensive coverage, and title and mortgage insurance.
• Wages you pay for domestic help.
• Depreciation.
• The cost of utilities, such as gas, electricity, or water.
• Most settlement costs. See Settlement or closing costs under Cost as Basis, later, for more information.

Real Estate Taxes

Most state and local governments charge an annual tax on the value of real property. This is called a real estate tax. You can deduct the tax if it is based on the assessed value of the real property and the taxing authority charges a uniform rate on all property in its jurisdiction. The tax must be for the welfare of the general public and not be a payment for a special privilege granted or service rendered to you.

Deductible Taxes

You can deduct real estate taxes imposed on you. You must have paid them either at settlement or closing, or to a taxing authority (either directly or through an escrow account) during the year. If you own a cooperative apartment, see Special Rules for Cooperatives, later.

Where to deduct real estate taxes.   Enter the amount of your deductible real estate taxes on line 6 of Schedule A (Form 1040).

Real estate taxes paid at settlement or closing.   Real estate taxes are generally divided so that you and the seller each pay taxes for the part of the property tax year you owned the home. Your share of these taxes is fully deductible, if you itemize your deductions.

Division of real estate taxes.   For federal income tax purposes, the seller is treated as paying the property taxes up to, but not including, the date of sale. You (the buyer) are treated as paying the taxes beginning with the date of sale. This applies regardless of the lien dates under local law. Generally, this information is included on the settlement statement you get at closing.

You and the seller each are considered to have paid your own share of the taxes, even if one or the other paid the entire amount. You each can deduct your own share, if you itemize deductions, for the year the property is sold.

Example.   You bought your home on September 1. The property tax year (the period to which the tax relates) in your area is the calendar year. The tax for the year was $730 and was due and paid by the seller on August 15.

You owned your new home during the property tax year for 122 days (September 1 to December 31, including your date of purchase). You figure your deduction for real estate taxes on your home as follows.

1.	Enter the total real estate taxes for the real property tax year	$730
2.	Enter the number of days in the property tax year that you owned the property	122
3.	Divide line 2 by 365	.3342
4.	Multiply line 1 by line 3. This is your deduction. Enter it on line 6 of Schedule A (Form 1040)	$244

You can deduct $244 on your return for the year if you itemize your deductions. You are considered to have paid this amount and can deduct it on your return even if, under the contract, you did not have to reimburse the seller.

Delinquent taxes.   Delinquent taxes are unpaid taxes that were imposed on the seller for an earlier tax year. If you agree to pay delinquent taxes when you buy your home, you cannot deduct them. You treat them as part of the cost of your home. See Real estate taxes, later, under Cost as Basis.

Escrow accounts.   Many monthly house payments include an amount placed in escrow (put in the care of a third party) for real estate taxes. You may not be able to deduct the total you pay into the escrow account. You can deduct only the real estate taxes that the lender actually paid from escrow to the taxing authority. Your real estate tax bill will show this amount.

Refund or rebate of real estate taxes.   If you receive a refund or rebate of real estate taxes this year for amounts you paid this year, you must reduce your real estate tax deduction by the amount refunded to you. If the refund or rebate was for real estate taxes paid for a prior year, you may have to include some or all of the refund in your income. For more information, see Recoveries in Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income.

Items You Cannot Deduct as Real Estate Taxes

The following items are not deductible as real estate taxes.

Charges for services.   An itemized charge for services to specific property or people is not a tax, even if the charge is paid to the taxing authority. You cannot deduct the charge as a real estate tax if it is:

• A unit fee for the delivery of a service (such as a $5 fee charged for every 1,000 gallons of water you use),
• A periodic charge for a residential service (such as a $20 per month or $240 annual fee charged for trash collection), or
• A flat fee charged for a single service provided by your local government (such as a $30 charge for mowing your lawn because it had grown higher than permitted under a local ordinance).

You must look at your real estate tax bill to decide if any nondeductible itemized charges, such as those listed above, are included in the bill. If your taxing authority (or lender) does not furnish you a copy of your real estate tax bill, ask for it.

Assessments for local benefits.   You cannot deduct amounts you pay for local benefits that tend to increase the value of your property. Local benefits include the construction of streets, sidewalks, or water and sewer systems. You must add these amounts to the basis of your property.

You can, however, deduct assessments (or taxes) for local benefits if they are for maintenance, repair, or interest charges related to those benefits. An example is a charge to repair an existing sidewalk and any interest included in that charge.

If only a part of the assessment is for maintenance, repair, or interest charges, you must be able to show the amount of that part to claim the deduction. If you cannot show what part of the assessment is for maintenance, repair, or interest charges, you cannot deduct any of it.

An assessment for a local benefit may be listed as an item in your real estate tax bill. If so, use the rules in this section to find how much of it, if any, you can deduct.

Transfer taxes (or stamp taxes).   You cannot deduct transfer taxes and similar taxes and charges on the sale of a personal home. If you are the buyer and you pay them, include them in the cost basis of the property. If you are the seller and you pay them, they are expenses of the sale and reduce the amount realized on the sale.

Homeowners association assessments.   You cannot deduct these assessments because the homeowners association, rather than a state or local government, imposes them.

Special Rules for Cooperatives

If you own a cooperative apartment, some special rules apply to you, though you generally receive the same tax treatment as other homeowners. As an owner of a cooperative apartment, you own shares of stock in a corporation that owns or leases housing facilities. You can deduct your share of the corporation's deductible real estate taxes if the cooperative housing corporation meets all of the following conditions.

• The corporation has only one class of stock outstanding.
• Each stockholder, solely because of ownership of the stock, can live in a house, apartment, or house trailer owned or leased by the corporation.
• No stockholder can receive any distribution out of capital, except on a partial or complete liquidation of the corporation.
• The tenant-stockholders pay at least 80% of the corporation's gross income for the tax year. For this purpose, gross income means all income received during the entire tax year, including any received before the corporation changed to cooperative ownership.

Tenant-stockholders.   A tenant-stockholder can be any entity (such as a corporation, trust, estate, partnership, or association) as well as an individual. The tenant-stockholder does not have to live in any of the cooperative's dwelling units. The units that the tenant-stockholder has the right to occupy can be rented to others.

Deductible taxes.   You figure your share of real estate taxes in the following way.

1. Divide the number of your shares of stock by the total number of shares outstanding, including any shares held by the corporation.
2. Multiply the corporation's deductible real estate taxes by the number you figured in (1). This is your share of the real estate taxes.

Generally, the corporation will tell you your share of its real estate tax. This is the amount you can deduct if it reasonably reflects the cost of real estate taxes for your dwelling unit.

Refund of real estate taxes.   If the corporation receives a refund of real estate taxes it paid in an earlier year, it must reduce the amount of real estate taxes paid this year when it allocates the tax expense to you. Your deduction for real estate taxes the corporation paid this year is reduced by your share of the refund the corporation received.

Home Mortgage Interest

This section of the publication gives you basic information about home mortgage interest, including information on interest paid at settlement, points, and Form 1098, Mortgage Interest Statement.

Most home buyers take out a mortgage (loan) to buy their home. They then make monthly house payments to either the mortgage holder or someone collecting the payments for the mortgage holder. (See Your house payment, earlier, under What You Can and Cannot Deduct.)

Usually, you can deduct the entire part of your house payment that is for mortgage interest, if you itemize your deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040). However, your deduction may be limited if:

• Your total mortgage balance is more than $1 million ($500,000 if married filing separately), or
• You took out a mortgage for reasons other than to buy, build, or improve your home.

If either of these situations applies to you, you will need to get Publication 936. You also may need Publication 936 if you later refinance your mortgage or buy a second home.

Refund of home mortgage interest.   If you receive a refund of home mortgage interest that you deducted in an earlier year and that reduced your tax, you generally must include the refund in income in the year you receive it. For more information, see Recoveries in Publication 525. The amount of the refund will usually be shown on the mortgage interest statement you receive from your mortgage lender. See Mortgage Interest Statement, later.

Deductible Mortgage Interest

To be deductible, the interest you pay must be on a loan secured by your main home or a second home. The loan can be a first or second mortgage, a home improvement loan, or a home equity loan.

Prepaid interest.   If you pay interest in advance for a period that goes beyond the end of the tax year, you must spread this interest over the tax years to which it applies. You can deduct in each year only the interest that qualifies as home mortgage interest for that year. However, there is an exception that applies to points, discussed later.

Late payment charge on mortgage payment.   You can deduct as home mortgage interest a late payment charge if it was not for a specific service in connection with your mortgage loan.

Mortgage prepayment penalty.   If you pay off your home mortgage early, you may have to pay a penalty. You can deduct that penalty as home mortgage interest provided the penalty is not for a specific service performed or cost incurred in connection with your mortgage loan.

Ground rent.   In some states (such as Maryland), you may buy your home subject to a ground rent. A ground rent is an obligation you assume to pay a fixed amount per year on the property. Under this arrangement, you are leasing (rather than buying) the land on which your home is located.

Redeemable ground rents.   If you make annual or periodic rental payments on a redeemable ground rent, you can deduct the payments as mortgage interest. The ground rent is a redeemable ground rent only if all of the following are true.

• Your lease, including renewal periods, is for more than 15 years.
• You can freely assign the lease.
• You have a present or future right (under state or local law) to end the lease and buy the lessor's entire interest in the land by paying a specified amount.
• The lessor's interest in the land is primarily a security interest to protect the rental payments to which he or she is entitled.

Payments made to end the lease and buy the lessor's entire interest in the land are not redeemable ground rents. You cannot deduct them.

Nonredeemable ground rents.   Payments on a nonredeemable ground rent are not mortgage interest. You can deduct them as rent only if they are a business expense or if they are for rental property.

Cooperative apartment.   You can usually treat the interest on a loan you took out to buy stock in a cooperative housing corporation as home mortgage interest if you own a cooperative apartment and the cooperative housing corporation meets the conditions described earlier under Special Rules for Cooperatives. In addition, you can treat as home mortgage interest your share of the corporation's deductible mortgage interest. Figure your share of mortgage interest the same way that is shown for figuring your share of real estate taxes in the Example under Division of real estate taxes. For more information on cooperatives, see Special Rule for Tenant-Stockholders in Cooperative Housing Corporations in Publication 936.

Refund of cooperative's mortgage interest.   You must reduce your mortgage interest deduction by your share of any cash portion of a patronage dividend that the cooperative receives. The patronage dividend is a partial refund to the cooperative housing corporation of mortgage interest it paid in a prior year.

If you receive a Form 1098 from the cooperative housing corporation, the form should show only the amount you can deduct.

Figure A. Are my points fully deductible this year?

Mortgage Interest Paid at Settlement

One item that normally appears on a settlement or closing statement is home mortgage interest.

You can deduct the interest that you pay at settlement if you itemize your deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040). This amount should be included in the mortgage interest statement provided by your lender. See the discussion under Mortgage Interest Statement, later. Also, if you pay interest in advance, see Prepaid interest, earlier, and Points, next.

Points

The term points is used to describe certain charges paid, or treated as paid, by a borrower to obtain a home mortgage. Points also may be called loan origination fees, maximum loan charges, loan discount, or discount points.

A borrower is treated as paying any points that a home seller pays for the borrower's mortgage. See Points paid by the seller, later.

General rule.   You cannot deduct the full amount of points in the year paid. They are prepaid interest, so you generally must deduct them over the life (term) of the mortgage.

Exception.   You fully can deduct points in the year paid if you meet all the following tests.

1. Your loan is secured by your main home. (Generally, your main home is the one you live in most of the time.)
2. Paying points is an established business practice in the area where the loan was made.
3. The points paid were not more than the points generally charged in that area.
4. You use the cash method of accounting. This means you report income in the year you receive it and deduct expenses in the year you pay them. Most individuals use this method.
5. The points were not paid in place of amounts that ordinarily are stated separately on the settlement statement, such as appraisal fees, inspection fees, title fees, attorney fees, and property taxes.
6. The funds you provided at or before closing, plus any points the seller paid, were at least as much as the points charged. The funds you provided do not have to have been applied to the points. They can include a down payment, an escrow deposit, earnest money, and other funds you paid at or before closing for any purpose. You cannot have borrowed these funds from your lender or mortgage broker.
7. You use your loan to buy or build your main home.
8. The points were computed as a percentage of the principal amount of the mortgage.
9. The amount is clearly shown on the settlement statement (such as the Uniform Settlement Statement, Form HUD-1) as points charged for the mortgage. The points may be shown as paid from either your funds or the seller's.

Note.   If you meet all of the tests listed above and you itemize your deductions in the year you get the loan, you can either deduct the full amount of points in the year paid or deduct them over the life of the loan, beginning in the year you get the loan. If you do not itemize your deductions in the year you get the loan, you can spread the points over the life of the loan and deduct the appropriate amount in each future year, if any, when you do itemize your deductions.

Home improvement loan.   You can also fully deduct in the year paid points paid on a loan to improve your main home, if tests (1) through (6) are met.

Points not fully deductible in year paid.   If you do not qualify under the exception to deduct the full amount of points in the year paid (or choose not to do so), see Points in chapter 5 of Publication 535, Business Expenses, for the rules on when and how much you can deduct.

Figure A.   You can use Figure A as a quick guide to see whether your points are fully deductible in the year paid.

Amounts charged for services.   Amounts charged by the lender for specific services connected to the loan are not interest. Examples of these charges are:

• Appraisal fees,
• Notary fees,
• Preparation costs for the mortgage note or deed of trust,
• Mortgage insurance premiums, and
• VA funding fees.

You cannot deduct these amounts as points either in the year paid or over the life of the mortgage. For information about the tax treatment of these amounts and other settlement fees and closing costs, see Basis, later.

Points paid by the seller.   The term points includes loan placement fees that the seller pays to the lender to arrange financing for the buyer.

Treatment by seller.   The seller cannot deduct these fees as interest; but, they are a selling expense that reduces the seller's amount realized. See Publication 523 for more information.

Treatment by buyer.   The buyer treats seller-paid points as if he or she had paid them. If all the tests under Exception (discussed earlier) are met, the buyer can deduct the points in the year paid. If any of those tests is not met, the buyer must deduct the points over the life of the loan.

The buyer must also reduce the basis of the home by the amount of the seller-paid points. For more information about the basis of your home, see Basis, later.

Funds provided are less than points.   If you meet all the tests under Exception (discussed earlier) except that the funds you provided were less than the points charged to you (test 6), you can deduct the points in the year paid up to the amount of funds you provided. In addition, you can deduct any points paid by the seller.

Example 1.   When you took out a $100,000 mortgage loan to buy your home in December, you were charged one point ($1,000). You meet all the tests for deducting points in the year paid (see Exception), except the only funds you provided were a $750 down payment. Of the $1,000 you were charged for points, you can deduct $750 in the year paid. You spread the remaining $250 over the life of the mortgage.

Example 2.   The facts are the same as in Example 1, except that the person who sold you your home also paid one point ($1,000) to help you get your mortgage. In the year paid, you can deduct $1,750 ($750 of the amount you were charged plus the $1,000 paid by the seller). You spread the remaining $250 over the life of the mortgage. You must reduce the basis of your home by the $1,000 paid by the seller.

Excess points.   If you meet all the tests under Exception except that the points paid were more than are generally charged in your area (test 3), you can deduct in the year paid only the points that are generally charged. You must spread any additional points over the life of the mortgage.

Mortgage ending early.   If you spread your deduction for points over the life of the mortgage, you can deduct any remaining balance in the year the mortgage ends. A mortgage may end early due to a prepayment, refinancing, foreclosure, or similar event.

Example.   Dan paid $3,000 in points in 1995 that he had to spread out over the 15-year life of the mortgage. He had deducted $1,400 of these points through 2001.

Dan prepaid his mortgage in full in 2002. He can deduct the remaining $1,600 of points in 2002.

Exception.   If you refinance the mortgage with the same lender, you cannot deduct any remaining points for the year. Instead, deduct them over the term of the new loan.

Form 1098.   The mortgage interest statement you receive should show not only the total interest paid during the year, but also your deductible points paid during the year. See Mortgage Interest Statement, later.

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