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Reducing Interest Expense

Qualified mortgage interest is deductible on taxpayers' returns subject to the maximum acquisition debt of one million dollars. For the fortunate homeowners who have paid off their mortgage, their acquisition debt was reduced to zero and only the interest on a maximum home equity debt of $100,000 is deductible.0% financing has induced car buyers into taking the plunge because it doesn’t cost anything to use someone else’s money. While mortgage rates are not at zero, they’re close enough that many home buyers are applying similar logic.

If you have to pay interest, deductible interest is preferable because it reduces your actual cost.

Consider the following example of a taxpayer with a $500,000 debt-free home. If they did an 80% cash-out refinance of $400,000, $100,000 would be considered home equity debt and the interest on that would be deductible on their income tax. The other $300,000 of debt is considered personal debt and the interest is not deductible.

However, because the rates are currently so low, the loss of deductibility of the interest doesn’t have as much impact as if the rates were higher. The key is to have a good purpose for the money that would offset the actual cost of the interest.

Paying off a higher rate debt such as credit cards, student loans, possibly, the business debt could all have significantly higher interest rates. Refinancing a home and eliminating debts like these could be big savings.

All lenders are not the same. Contact Kathy for a recommendation of a trusted mortgage professional.

Appreciation and tax savings are legitimate contributors to an overall rate of return on the rental real estate but what if you didn't consider them at all? If you only looked at one or two, very conservative measurements, you might decide to invest especially knowing that there are more benefits that will accrue to your investment.

If we bought a property for cash, collected the rent and paid the expenses, the amount left would be called Net Operating Income. In the example below, if would generate $7,200 a year which would be a 7.02% cash on cash rate of return which is considerably higher than the current 10-year treasury rate of around 2.3%.

If we place a mortgage on that property, the rate of return actually increases due to leverage. After the principal and interest are paid, the net operating income obviously decreases but the cash on cash rate of return increases to 9.10% because the borrowed funds mean less cash invested.

Another contribution to the investment's rate of return occurs with the mortgage due to amortization: the principal reduces with each payment made which increase the investor's equity. In this example, the equity build-up divided by the initial investment yields a 5.25% rate of return in the first year.

Single family home for rental purposes offer the investor high loan-to-value mortgages at fixed interest rates for long terms on appreciating assets with tax benefits, reasonable control and an opportunity to earn higher than normal rates of return. Contact Kathy if you'd like to talk about what kind of rental opportunities are available.

IRS requires that expenses must actually be paid in the year that a deduction is to be taken. If you have a mortgage with an escrow account to pay your property taxes and insurance, you expect the company servicing your loan to pay this year’s taxes this year so that you can deduct them on your 2014 income tax return. After all, your monthly payment includes 1/12 the annual amount so there will be money available for them to be paid on time.

The predicament occurs when you’ve made your payments but the mortgage company didn’t pay the taxing authority in the tax year they were due. If they paid your 2014 taxes in January of 2015, they wouldn’t be deductible for you until you file your 2015 income tax return.

Verify with your lender after you make the December payment that they did indeed pay your property taxes. The question for your lender’s customer service is: "Have you or will you pay the 2014 property taxes this year so I’m eligible to deduct them on my 2014 income tax return?”

For more information and all your questions, contact Kathy today.

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