Comments for Home Buyer Tax Credit Blog

Comment on My Work Here is Done (?) by Greg

Greg — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:36:01 +0000

I still believe our government officials should be pushed to corrrect the marriage penalty in general by allowing up to the full credit to one of two individuals in a marriage if they (the individual) would have qualified for same amount had they not been married. The government has failed (tricked many of) us into believing if we (individually) qualify, we get it. Who would think to go to the IRS site looking for the government’s loopholes? I didn’t until it was too late. Your belief it was an accident, I’m not feeling the same. They could have corrected it in its entirety if it really was. Simply put, their corrections were made seemingly made “kicking and screaming” and half-hearted. It still amazes me how the real estate sites with their rubber stamp questionaire absolutely fail (I believe intentionally to promote sales) to ask you if you are married and what your spouse’s status is on home ownership. They too are complicit in all of this. I even got an extension on my taxes in the hope that there would be further corrections to this situation. No such luck. Looks like government is too worried about what corporate entities they are going to give our money to next.

Greg P.
South Florida

Comment on Home Buyer Tax Credit Closing Deadline Extended through June 30th by betty stewart

betty stewart — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:17:46 +0000

Thank you -

Comment on Update on the Marriage Penalty: We have a Special Report, and we have a Bill! by Alan Seymour

Alan Seymour — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:14:41 +0000

Hello,
There is an issue you may or may not be aware of with the Facebook page. I could not join the cause. I noticed the membership is now 450. Is there a limit? I think once all the “rejection” letters from the IRS are sent, the **** will hit the fan regarding this huge fiasco!

Comment on Update on the Marriage Penalty: We have a Special Report, and we have a Bill! by Tina & Alan

Tina & Alan — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:40:18 +0000

Hi…we just got our certified letter from the IRS today…my husband of 2 yrs and I do not qualify either because we got married in June 2008 and I owned my home since 2001. We did not live together until we married and my husband has not owned a home in more than 3 years…but since we are married now, we cancel each other out! This is INSANE! What a slap to a cornerstone of our society – marriage!! We were counting on the credit to repay a family member who helped us with the downpayment and now will have to wait longer to start our family…thanks OBAMA!

Comment on Confirmation that the Marriage Penalty in the Home Buyer Tax Credit will not apply to married couples with one spouse on title. by Jess

Jess — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:14:16 +0000

My husband and I were in the same situation as Zac. I also purhased a house in Sept 2003, my boyfriend at the time moved in in March 2004, we got married in Feb 2008, purchased a new house last November. After reading everything about this marriage penalty we decided to wait until a change was made to the law to file for the credit. Well, after reading your post in April, we decided to go for it…it couldn’t hurt. So, we ammended our taxes around the first of June and last week we received our $6500 check plus $60 in interest. Whoo Hoo!!!!! Thanks for the website it really helped us out!

Comment on Confirmation that the Marriage Penalty in the Home Buyer Tax Credit will not apply to married couples with one spouse on title. by Mike H.

Mike H. — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:54:41 +0000

Hello all,

Regarding Zac’s report above…has anyone tried to actually claim the long-term credit with that sceanrio?

I am in the same boat as Zac, and read with elation the original post, but now have my expectations tempered.

To the creators of this site: Thanks so much for taking the time to research this!

Mike

Comment on Questions? by Joseph Rand

Joseph Rand — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:42:23 +0000

Hi @Anthony, thanks for your post, and for your service to our country. I’m afraid that I’m a little fuzzy on some of the military requirements. It’s clear that certain military personnel have an extra year to get into contract and close on their transactions, but the qualifications for that extension are probably best answered by you or someone who knows the meaning of the terms referenced in the statute. The rule seems to be that if you were deployed away from your home for a period of time in the past year or so, you qualify. I doubt that coming home for one week during a deployment would invalidate the deployment. You should read over the legislation on this point, and maybe check military regulations to find the definitions of the terms the statute uses.

Comment on Questions? by Joseph Rand

Joseph Rand — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:40:33 +0000

Hi @Roger, thanks for posting. The date you get the mortgage isn’t the issue, the issue is when you took title to the property. If you took title after November 6, 2009, then you’d be eligible for a credit (assuming you meet the other guidelines). It looks like you closed well before the June 30 deadline, so that’s not an issue either.

Comment on Questions? by Joseph Rand

Joseph Rand — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:39:21 +0000

Hi @Matt, the IRS told me one thing, and then told a board contributor another. It’s clear that the spouse definitely has to live in the property for at least five consecutive years out of the last eight. The question is whether that “spouse” has to have been a spouse during that full time, or whether turning from boyfriend to fiance to spouse during that time would still qualify. The IRS has been unclear on this, so other than tee up the issue for you I don’t have a definitive answer.

Comment on Questions? by Joseph Rand

Joseph Rand — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:37:31 +0000

hi @Deva, I don’t think that you’d qualify. The $800,000 limitation seems to be a hard limitation, that limits the applicability of the credit. It doesn’t look to me that the legislation allows for a proration of the credit based on ownership of a property above that limit. But you might want to call the IRS to make sure.