Many people refinanced their mortgages in 2011 to take advantage of super-low interest rates. If you refinanced last year, here's how to make sure you claim all your rightful deductions on your 2011 return.
Assuming your home was worth at least $300,000 when you refinanced, you have, in effect, two new mortgages as far as the Internal Revenue Service is concerned. The first $200,000 of your new loan (the balance on your old mortgage when you paid it off) is treated as "home-acquisition debt." And the interest on this qualifies as an itemized deduction on line 10 of your Schedule A.
The remaining $100,000 of your new loan is treated as home-equity debt. The interest on this should also qualify as an itemized deduction on line 10 of your Schedule A. But keep one thing in mind: The IRS only recognizes home-equity loans up to $100,000; you can't deduct the interest paid on principal above that figure.
Also, if the home-acquisition debt plus the home-equity debt exceeded the fair-market value of your home, you generally can't deduct the interest on the excess debt. Say your home was worth $240,000 when you took out that new $300,000 loan. You can deduct the interest on the $200,000 of acquisition debt. However, for the home equity debt, you can only deduct the interest on $40,000. So you can deduct 80% ($240,000/$300,000) of the total mortgage interest on line 10 of your Schedule A. (The interest on the remaining $60,000 of debt is generally considered a nondeductible personal expense, though there are a couple of exceptions, like if you used the loan proceeds to finance your small business.)
What about the points related to the home-equity debt ($1,500 in our example)? You can amortize those in the same proportion as the interest, provided that the home-equity debt is $100,000 or less, and the home's value isn't less than the home-equity debt plus the acquisition debt. Claim the amortization write-off for your home-mortgage points on line 10 or 12 of Schedule A.
This brings us to our last potential deduction. If you previously refinanced your mortgage and paid points, you probably have a good-sized unamortized (or not-yet-deducted) balance for those points. You can generally deduct that entire unamortized amount when you refinance again. For example, say the mortgage you refinanced last year was taken out in a previous refinancing deal done six years earlier, back in 2005. At that time you paid $2,000 in points for your 30-year loan. You should have $1,600 worth of unamortized points left over from the 2005 loan (80% of the original $2,000 amount). On your 2011 return, don't forget to deduct the $1,600 of unamortized points. Claim your write-off on line 12 of Schedule A.
Deducting Your Mortgage Interest
Say your original mortgage was $200,000. On July 1, 2011, you took out a new 30-year, $300,000 mortgage and paid 1 1/2 points, or $4,500, for the privilege. (Each point represents 1% of your total loan amount.) You then used the extra $100,000 from the new mortgage to eliminate some high-interest credit-card bills, pay off your car loans and cover various other expenses.The remaining $100,000 of your new loan is treated as home-equity debt. The interest on this should also qualify as an itemized deduction on line 10 of your Schedule A. But keep one thing in mind: The IRS only recognizes home-equity loans up to $100,000; you can't deduct the interest paid on principal above that figure.
Also, if the home-acquisition debt plus the home-equity debt exceeded the fair-market value of your home, you generally can't deduct the interest on the excess debt. Say your home was worth $240,000 when you took out that new $300,000 loan. You can deduct the interest on the $200,000 of acquisition debt. However, for the home equity debt, you can only deduct the interest on $40,000. So you can deduct 80% ($240,000/$300,000) of the total mortgage interest on line 10 of your Schedule A. (The interest on the remaining $60,000 of debt is generally considered a nondeductible personal expense, though there are a couple of exceptions, like if you used the loan proceeds to finance your small business.)
Talking Points
You can also amortize the points related to the home-acquisition-debt part of the new loan ($3,000 in our example) over the life of the loan. Say it's a 30-year loan (360 months). Your amortization deduction would be $8.33 a month ($3,000 divided by 360), for a grand total of $99.96 a year. Every little bit helps, right?What about the points related to the home-equity debt ($1,500 in our example)? You can amortize those in the same proportion as the interest, provided that the home-equity debt is $100,000 or less, and the home's value isn't less than the home-equity debt plus the acquisition debt. Claim the amortization write-off for your home-mortgage points on line 10 or 12 of Schedule A.
This brings us to our last potential deduction. If you previously refinanced your mortgage and paid points, you probably have a good-sized unamortized (or not-yet-deducted) balance for those points. You can generally deduct that entire unamortized amount when you refinance again. For example, say the mortgage you refinanced last year was taken out in a previous refinancing deal done six years earlier, back in 2005. At that time you paid $2,000 in points for your 30-year loan. You should have $1,600 worth of unamortized points left over from the 2005 loan (80% of the original $2,000 amount). On your 2011 return, don't forget to deduct the $1,600 of unamortized points. Claim your write-off on line 12 of Schedule A.
