Blog Layout
Ken Venick’s Tax Deduction Tips for Homeowners
Ken Venick • Mar 12, 2021
Tax season is here, and it goes without saying that we all want to get the most out of our refund. Homeowners have quite a few ways they can save money during tax season, but most don’t understand all the opportunities available to them. Owning a home means you have access to federal income tax breaks, and taking advantage of these could help you tremendously.
Below, we’ll provide some tax deduction tips for homeowners and guidelines that will help you make the most out of your tax breaks and maximize your refund.
- Organize. When it comes time for tax season, many of us start scrambling to find receipts or other documents required to file. The best way to prevent this is to start organizing early. Keep hard copies of documents and receipts in a single location, so it’ll be easier to keep track of. We also recommend storing files online, whether it’s on Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. If you lose any of the paper copies, you’ll at least have backup storage.
- Start researching your deduction options. Deductions are helpful when it comes to lowering your total tax obligations, and works by reducing your taxable income. As a homeowner, there are certain eligible expenses you can itemize in your deductions, many of which people are unaware of. A few of these include home mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable contributions, and medical expense deductions.
- Find your home improvement receipts. If you make any improvements to your home, your expenses aren’t deductible for the current tax year. However should you sell your home down the line, it can then help alleviate the financial burden. When you do home improvements, you can add those expenses to your adjusted basis. This will most likely be what you paid to purchase the home, construction costs, renovation or repair costs, etc. In the tax year you sell your home, the taxes that come from the sale are based on the sale price and anything you get from the seller (think closing costs), minus your selling expenses. If the amount you get from all those things is higher than your adjusted basis, you could benefit from the sale. Essentially, the higher your adjusted basis is, the less taxes you could pay on your profit from the sale.
- Keep track of home office expenses . This one is timely, considering many of us are working remotely because of the pandemic. If you are self-employed or working from home, you might be able to deduct expenses that are used to run your business. Not everyone can claim this; only if you’re using it regularly and exclusively for working purposes. The type of expenses you deduct could include expenses you’ve used to create the office, and depreciation for the portion of the home that is being used.
Even after your taxes are complete, make sure you keep the files. It’s important to always have these documents readily accessible, as you never know when you might need to reference them again.
We hope you enjoyed these tax deduction tips for homeowners. Ken Venick is licensed in Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida. We are locally owned and operated which means we don’t have the overhead of national firms. If you need a mortgage lender, contact us today.
The post Ken Venick’s Tax Deduction Tips for Homeowners appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
Buying a home can be very intimidating and the no strings attached feeling renting can give someone sometimes seems like the easier option. But that isn’t always the case. There are many situations where it makes more sense to purchase your home instead of continuing to rent it year after year. There are alot of […]
The post The Benefits of Buying A Home Over Renting appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
Due to the pandemic, there have been a lot of people purchasing homes or even refinancing. It is important to understand the different types of loans that are offered to make sure the buyer knows their options. Ken Venick has been in the mortgage loan business for over 30 years and is your […]
The post Learning and Understanding The Different Types of Loans appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
Find yourself wondering what a mortgage broker is? A mortgage broker acts as an intermediary between the borrower and the lender and controls transactions between the two. They take care of finding the best mortgages and interest rates by using their personal network of financial institutions and lenders. Working with a mortgage broker is […]
The post Understanding What A Mortgage Broker Does appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
Just bought a fixer upper that needs a lot of work? A home renovation loan gives the homeowner the funds needed to not only purchase the home, but fix it up as well. A home renovation loan should only be considered if the renovation of the home will increase the property value or reduce long-term […]
The post What is a Renovation Loan? appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
Congratulations, you are looking to buy a new home! This is such an exciting time in your life, but it can also be an expensive one. When it comes to buying a home there will be plenty of hidden expenses you may not have taken into account when you decided to become a homeowner. It […]
The post Hidden Expenses When Buying A Home appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
The home buying process starts with figuring out the location of where you want to live. This can be extremely overwhelming with a lot of different scenarios to think about and a lot of decisions to make. Here at Ken Venick, we want to make the home buying process as easy as possible and that […]
The post 5 Important Tips A Homeowner Should Know When Narrowing Down An Area To Live In appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
On the road to buying a new home? Is your lender requiring you to have a co-signer in order to get your loan? We break down the requirements of a co-signer to give you a better understanding as to why you may need one in the first place. A co-signer is someone (like […]
The post Why Is Your Lender Requiring You To Have A Co-Signer? appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
The Federal Reserve has said it will keep it’s interest rates close to zero, but it wont stay this way for long. Homeowners have been quick to put their houses on the market since more and more buyers are on the prowl are on the hunt for a new place to call home. […]
The post Money Moves To Make When Your Interest Rates Are Low appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
Home renovations are one of the hottest topics in 2021. It gives an owner the chance to turn their space into exactly what they need it to be, whether they have just moved in, making more room, or getting ready to put it on the market. Home renovations can increase the value of a home […]
The post 5 Home Renovations With The Highest and Lowest Returns appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
It may take weeks, months, or even years to find your dream home. And one you find it, you want to do everything you can to secure it. There’s always the fear that someone else can snatch it up — which means you need to seal the deal with a competitive offer! In this […]
The post Top Ways To Show A Seller Your Offer Is Legit appeared first on Owings Mills & Lutherville Mortgage.
Are You Ready to Get the Ball Rolling on Your Mortgage?
Get in Touch With a Mortgage Expert
NMLS# 150953
© 2024 All Rights Reserved | Luminate Home Loans, Inc.