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Strategies & Market Trends : Income Taxes and Record Keeping ( tax ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeuspaul who wrote (190)	11/5/1997 3:18:00 PM
From: lavalamp	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5810

Zeus, You might want to get Publication 936 (Home Mortgage Interest Deduction) from the IRS. It might be available on line at the IRS website. Generally speaking, you will receive a Form 1098 from the mortgage company that will show you how much of your interest is to be deducted. If you try to claim more, you will be raising a red flag. Points paid only to refinance a mortgage are generally amortized over the life of the new loan. I think there are also several revenue procedures that discuss these issues . The appeals case was in the 8th Circuit and therefore you cannot be assured that the court would rule in a similar fashion on similar facts in whatever circuit you live (unless you live in the 8th circuit). Thus, I would suggest that the mortgage points you are paying on the refinance will not be currently deductible without creating an audit issue for your tax return. The question then becomes, are you willing to create that issue in your return and then you need to find the technical support to allow you to take the position. A couple of sources that will have a good discussion of this would be tax services in your local library called RIA (research institute of america) BNA, CCH (commerce clearing house), PH (prentice hall).I have also found a lot of tax web sites and it appears you found at least one that stated amortization was the answer.Based upon the facts you are presenting, I don't see a current deduction but you may find something to hang your hat on in order to take the deduction.Specfically, I would look at the court case to see if I could fit into the appeals case fact pattern. BTW: like your broker, i claim no expertise in anything;)