As part of our general campaign to end the Marriage Penalty in the Home Buyer Tax Credit, we were interviewed last week by a reporter from the National Journal about the issue. He wrote up an extensive piece about the issue, which unfortunately was unfortunately behind a subscriber wall when it initially came out. But it’s live now, and you can read it here:
In fact, we’ve seen a bit of a spike in the traffic on the site this week, and a spike in the Questions section from people asking about the Marriage Penalty, so we think that a lot of people are just discovering the problem.
The funny part about it is that the reporter only discovered the issue when he was getting ready to file his taxes, and realized that he was not able to claim the credit because of the marriage penalty. I guess what we need now is for someone related to an important Senator to discover the same thing….
Like the reporter, I only discovered the penalty after having a contract on a house. Again, it’s amazing how the media and our government leaves out the disclaimer “depending upon your marriage situation” when they are hyping the home buyer credit.
As a Realtor I’ve worked with unmarried couples who bought a home together and received the first time buyer tax credit. I’ve also worked with married couples who bought their first home together and received the credit.
I was very surprised this week to find that clients I am currently working with might not receive the “move up” tax credit, simply because they got married at the wrong time.
He had owned a home for 5 years, which qualified him for the $6500 tax credit, if he bought a new home.
She had never owned a home.
They were married six months ago. That was their big mistake. Had they just lived together they would still be eligible for the $6500 tax credit.
Either the law was written with a bias against marriage or, more likely, it was written without taking into account the possibility of a recent marriage. Seams like folks at the IRS don’t have the ability to say, “no, that’s not the intent of the law…of course they can get the tax credit”. None I talked to were able to think beyond what their computer screen told them.
This needs to be fixed. Seams anyone with some decision making ability could clarify the application of this wording in about 30 seconds. If recently married couples are excluded from the tax credit, it shows a truly unfair bias against them. Anyone with an ounce of sanity would say that’s not right.
Hi @Troy, thanks for posting, and good luck to your clients.
It is amazing to me how little realtors, lawyers and bankers know about the minutiae of this law. Mt realtor talked me into accepting a lower offer in order to beat the clock and accept in time for Fridays deadline for the credit. OF course, after accepting the deal in a cruel fashion, I learned from your video (and thank you) that my wife and I do not qualify.
Apparently, I have owned a home for 5 and a 1/4 years. Of course we waited til I got to the five year birthday to start selling the home as well. My wife, moved in three years ago, and yet never owned any stake in the said home we now live in.
Of course, we got married which according to the legislation was stupid to do and I lost on the selling aspect with the low bid and now on the buying aspect since we raced to get to contract before friday in order to get at least the $6500.
For a middle class family to lose out on money that heavily influences their purchasing/selling power because they got married is mind blowing. We are school teachers and we both teach about the government/civics in our classrooms.
How does one explain that the government is willing to give money away to spur in the housing market yet punish couples who are just starting out?
I’m not sure if it will matter much at this point, but I recently heard back from one of my congress reps. He is co-sponsoring another bill (HR 4713) which was sent to the same committee as HR 4701. Maybe the co-sponsors of the two bills should join together instead of sponsoring separate bills.
I have written to every politician that “represents” me, requesting a response. Not a single one replied. And I’ve written to numerous real estate reporters for the Washington Post and the only one who wrote back suggested I contact my tax attorney. I’m glad that at least one reporter felt like doing his job.