Your primary residence is the home you live in day-to-day. Interest on a mortgage on primary residence The following are definitions for mortgage interest on federal returns only. California, for example, allows you to deduct interest on up to $1 million in mortgage debt-plus interest on up to $100,000 in home equity debt-before calculating your state income tax bill. We’ll go more into what that means, as well as some other instances when you can write off mortgage interest, below.Ī quick note: In some states, you may also be able to deduct some or all of your mortgage interest on your state return.

Joseph, a certified public accountant and founder of Joseph & Joseph Tax & Payroll in Williamston, Mich.īeyond that, the home must also be your primary residence or a second home. That home can be a traditional, single-family house or another form of housing-such as a condo, co-op, trailer, mobile home or even boat, in some cases.īasically, it is “a property that has sleeping, cooking and toilet facilities,” says Paul T. To count as eligible mortgage interest in the Internal Revenue Service’s eyes, the interest must be accumulated on a loan secured by a home. the standard deduction below.) What counts as mortgage interest? (Learn more about weighing itemized deductions vs. If you take the standard deduction, you won’t also be able to deduct your mortgage interest-or any other individual deductions. Just keep in mind: You can only write off interest on up to those $750,000 or $1 million limits even if you borrow more, and you also must itemize your federal returns. For someone in the 24% federal tax bracket, that could mean nearly $12,500 saved in taxes in year one and $528 at the end of the loan term. Because of the way mortgage interest is calculated, you’ll usually pay more interest early in your loan term than you will later on.įor example, a homeowner with a $750,000 loan at 7% rate will pay more than $52,000 in interest in the first year of a 30-year mortgage but just over $2,200 by year 30. This will vary based on your mortgage rate and how far into your loan you are. Your deduction amount will also depend on how much interest you pay in a given year. 16, 2017 or later, you can only deduct interest on the first $750,000 in mortgage debt ($375,000 if married filing separately). 15, 2017, you can deduct the interest paid on the first $1 million in total mortgage debt ($500,000 if you’re married and file separate returns from your spouse). Essentially, was it before or after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017? If it was on or before Dec. The exact amount you can deduct depends on two things: first, when you bought your home. It allows you to deduct some or all of the interest you paid on mortgage loans from your total taxable income for that year. The mortgage interest deduction is a type of itemized tax deduction that has been around in some form since a federal income tax was introduced in 1913.

Mortgage tax deduction calculator