I thought buying a house was supposed to be good for taxes.

mamie329

 

I just put in some #s into TurboTax, and it looks like we owe roughly $700. Boooo. Not a fabulous time to have to pay random tax bills.  

luckycooky

That sucks. But I put our numbers into an estimator last night and then actually filled out the forms and it was different. Amelia pretty much paid for herself.

mamie329

That's what I'm missing - a kid! 

luckycooky

Well the refund is going to payoff NICU bills so I don't get to enjoy too much of it. But we are thinking of getting a new chair for the living room. I still have the papasan I bought 10 years ago and it needs to go.

kaleyandjason

That sucks, Mames. Our house was good for our taxes. We can't file until mid-Feb though, after all the updates go in to affect.

mamie329

kaleyandjason:

That sucks, Mames. Our house was good for our taxes. We can't file until mid-Feb though, after all the updates go in to affect.

The house didn't have any effect - we didn't have enough deductions to surpass the standard deduction.  

vhcoleman09

Sorry mames. Next year should be better because you will have paid more in interest and can deduct more. Oh, and property taxes.

kaleyandjason

mamie329:

kaleyandjason:

That sucks, Mames. Our house was good for our taxes. We can't file until mid-Feb though, after all the updates go in to affect.

The house didn't have any effect - we didn't have enough deductions to surpass the standard deduction.  

Ah. Gotcha.

red daisy

Yeah it can be tough if you buy a house mid year.  Here in IN the property taxes are pretty low so we just pay enough in interest and taxes to be able to itemize.  Hoping that Nicholas pays for himself this year too

Don't Hassle the Hoff

You need either high prop. taxes (more than $3K/year) and a mortgage of about $300K with interest rate of around 5% in order to surpass the standard deduction from just house stuff. Standard deduction for a married couple is something like $11,200, I believe.

 Our first mortgage payment was due in May, so we had 8 months, plus only about half our property taxes ($2500) were paid this year and we just surpassed the standard deduction. Our interest paid was $8200

 You can also deduct PMI and MMI for anyone who is wondering.

hawkilady

I've been itemizing since the first year I bought my house, it always saved me about $2000 on my taxes but when we got married and filed jointly we took a hit, I think we only got about $400 back last year.  DH made more money this year so I'm thinking we'll likely break even.  2011 should be good for us though once we have the baby to deduct. 

stephriz

mamie329:

kaleyandjason:

That sucks, Mames. Our house was good for our taxes. We can't file until mid-Feb though, after all the updates go in to affect.

The house didn't have any effect - we didn't have enough deductions to surpass the standard deduction.  

Have you looked for more deductions though?  What about state income tax (or sales tax of you don't have state income tax)?  Charitable deductions?  Student loan interest?  I think you may be able to deduct points you bought for your mortgage too (although I'm not sure).

 

We have high property taxes in TX which is what's pushing us over the standard deduction.

Don't Hassle the Hoff

stephriz:

mamie329:

kaleyandjason:

That sucks, Mames. Our house was good for our taxes. We can't file until mid-Feb though, after all the updates go in to affect.

The house didn't have any effect - we didn't have enough deductions to surpass the standard deduction.  

Have you looked for more deductions though?  What about state income tax (or sales tax of you don't have state income tax)?  Charitable deductions?  Student loan interest?  I think you may be able to deduct points you bought for your mortgage too (although I'm not sure).

 

We have high property taxes in TX which is what's pushing us over the standard deduction.

 

You can deduct points. I hate property tax. 

mamie329

stephriz:

Have you looked for more deductions though?  What about state income tax (or sales tax of you don't have state income tax)?  Charitable deductions?  Student loan interest?  I think you may be able to deduct points you bought for your mortgage too (although I'm not sure).

Yep, went through it all. The only thing benefiting us is SL interest.  

stephriz

mamie329:

Yep, went through it all. The only thing benefiting us is SL interest.  

Hmmm.  Well that sucks.