Tax benefits of home ownership in the Albuquerque area: Huge advantages you may not be aware of

(Transcript Snippet):

Tego:

Great. Tracy, I want to talk about tax benefits of home ownership. We talk about the benefits of home ownership in general all the time, correct Tracy. So we talk about obviously the financial issues and some of the

Tracy:

Talk about the more, you know, loving kind fun things about it, making it your own and painting your room and having your family memories there, but

Tego:

Of a community. And, and, and, and then the financial part, obviously the, the forced savings every month, you’re, you know, you’re paying down your principal, so that’s a for savings. And then there’s, you know, obviously equity gain as you know, over time as home prices. Appreciate.

Tracy:

So we’re going to talk about tax benefits and we are not tax accountants. We’re not tax advisors, but we know there are certain benefits, right?

Tego:

Oh, there absolutely is an in. I’ll tell you what in, in, I’ll tell you just, if you want to see this story, it’s a realtor.com store they put out really well done. If you just search seven tax benefits of owning a home

Tracy:

And it’s from February of 2021. So it’s very current information. And again,

Tego:

It’s, it’s a realtor.com. So just look for that. I’m sure it’ll come up on the first page of your searches. So the first one I think is the most obvious is, is most people recognize is the mortgage interest deduction, right? And so you can deduct most of your interest that you pay on your mortgage. And that could, that could add up to quite a bit. And you know, all of these, we’ve got to say, there’s always some reason that maybe you don’t qualify again, talk to your accountant. I don’t know how many times we’re going to say that, but that’s the big one that, that,uis got a huge advantage for people. ,Hne that’s a little bit, I don’t want to say if it’s not as well as lesser well-known is, is your property taxes. If you itemized, you can deduct your property taxes, but not everybody itemizes.

Tego:

So if you take a standard deduction and not an accountant here, you don’t, I know I’m going to say it over and over again. Okay. Okay, fine. Private mortgage. So anyway, taxes can be deducted private mortgage mortgage insurance. So if you purchase a home Tracey and you don’t put the,u20% down, you are the lenders going to want you to take out insurance on that. And so it’s private mortgage insurance, a lot of different versions of it, but that also can be deductible when that could be a big one. Right. ,He n ber four on this list was energy efficient upgrades. This one’s a little bit tougher and it’s been getting tougher. You know, I know, New Mexico there used to be some really great advantages in, in incentives for solar and, and other, ,ergy efficient stuff, but it’s not quite as great anymore. They are out there. And so look for those, if, if you have those types of things, , e’s the big one, Tracy, this year, year of 2020, guess what?

Tracy:

A home office space that you use within your home as your office? Yeah. Maxim deduction of 1500, I believe. Yeah. But you know, you just have to calculate how much space of your square footage you’re using for your home office and how often and how many times yeah.

Tego:

Talk to your accountant about it. Cause there may be some, some tax savings there for you that you may not even have thought of. You know, like us Tracy, we’ve been working in two, you know, our home office in our work office for many years. People that are self-employed are used to that, but people that are new to this in 2020 may not know. So, so look for that. This one, I had no idea even existed trace. I didn’t even know it was a thing. And it’s a n ber six on this list is home improvements to age in place. So if you need to do some things on the home to make it,ufor the holder, older homeowners

Tracy:

Or handicapped, not necessarily. So things like wheelchair ramps, grab bars and bathrooms, shower accommodations versus tubs, those types of things. I don’t know, widening hallways widening doorways, I suppose if you’re actually in a wheelchair.

Tego:

Yeah. Interesting. I didn’t, I didn’t know. That was one. And look at that, we learned something. Yeah. Your, your hilar interests

Tracy:

Interest on a home equity line of credit. He locked.

Tego:

Yeah. I was getting there, but yes. So your home equity. So if you take out a home equity line of credit, so that’s the basically borrowing against your equity in the home. And if you use it toward a home upgrades, many times that can be deducted. So again, check with your accountant on all of these things. But I thought it was an interesting list, Tracy.”