But it sounds like I can go back through 18 or whatever years of annual brokerage statements, add up all the 18 years of margin interest, and then use them for the 2015 tax year? If they carry over, that's acceptable, right? No because you used standard deductions and therefore gave up any claim to itemized deductions. You could use it only if you filed amended returns (1040X) using itemized deductions and even then I doubt you could go back 18 years (probably a limit but I don't know what it is).
Even this year, we'll see. If we buy this property my margin loan will be about $600,000. At 1.5% interest, that's still only $9,000. I have a wife and three kids, so the standard deduction gives me about $17,000 in deductions, not exactly sure but its a fairly big deduction. Even with a $600,000 margin loan it may not make sense to itemize. I guess that's good because it is because the margin rate is so low. Maybe not but remember that local taxes, medical expenses including healthcare insurance premiums, charitable contributions (and many other things) can add to your total deductions. In your case using margin to finance a home probably qualifies as investment interest because real estate is an investment, but you should check this with a tax pro. |
