J.K. Lasser's Homeowner's Tax Breaks: Your Complete Guide to Finding Hidden Gold in Your Home Book

	Preface	xv
Part I	Sheltering Your Income with Home Deductions
1	Deductions in Year You Buy Your Home	3
1.1	Overview	3
1.2	Real Estate Taxes in the Year You Buy: Get Your Proper Share	4
1.3	Mortgage Points: How to Assure Deduction	7
1.4	Moving Expenses: Does Your Move Qualify for Deduction?	11
1.5	How Should Married Couples Take Title to Their Home?	12
1.6	Purchase Expenses: The Importance of Records	12
1.7	Purchaser's Tax-Planning Checklist	14
2	Recurring Deductions Every Year You Own Your Home	16
2.1	Overview	16
2.2	Planning to Maximize Deductions	17
2.3	Deduct All Your Real Estate Taxes	17
2.4	Tax Magic of Home Mortgages: Your Interest Deductions	19
2.5	Refinanced Home Mortgage--Watch Out for Interest Deduction and Points	20
2.6	Home Damaged? Let the IRS Help Pay!	22
2.7	How to Boost Your Damage Loss Deduction	26
2.8	When Your Damage Is from a Presidentially Declared Disaster	28
2.9	How to Deduct Your Home Office Expenses	30
2.10	Eligibility of Employees	30
2.11	Eligibility of Business Owners	33
2.12	Figuring the Deduction	34
2.13	If You Work outside Your Home: How to Get Home Office Deductions	43
2.14	How Home Office Makes Commuting Costs Deductible	45
2.15	Deduct Your Home Office Equipment Cost--Up Front	47
3	Special-Situation Deductions for Homeowners	48
3.1	Overview	48
3.2	How to Get Tax-Free Income from Short-Term Rental	48
3.3	How to Make Your Credit Card and Car Loan Interest Deductible	50
3.4	How to Deduct Cost of Medical Home Improvements	54
3.5	Deductible Home Improvements for the Disabled	57
3.6	How an Employee Gets a Tax Break for a "Sideline" Business	58
3.7	Deduction of Fees for Home Tax Advice	61
3.8	Tax-Wise Borrowing against Your Home for Business	62
3.9	Renting a Part of Your Home	64
3.10	Your Home as a Retirement Nest Egg	65
Part II	Tax Shelter When You Sell Your Home
4	How to Sell Your Home with No Tax on Gain	69
4.1	Overview	69
4.2	How to Plan for the Sale	70
4.3	Exclusion of Up to $250,000 or More of Gain	71
4.4	How to Qualify for the Exclusion	72
4.5	Exceptions to the Two-Year Rule: Job Change, Health Problems, or Unforeseen Circumstances	75
4.6	Married Couples: How to Get the $500,000 Exclusion	79
4.7	Is Your Home Your "Principal Residence"?	83
4.8	Your Home Office: Does It Qualify?	85
4.9	Vacant Land Can Qualify	85
4.10	Snowbirds: How to Deal with the Southern Home Trap	86
4.11	Gain in Excess of the Exclusion	88
4.12	How to Cope with a Depressed Market by Rental before Sale	90
4.13	How to Avoid Reporting to the IRS	91
4.14	Seller's Tax-Planning Checklist	95
5	The High-Priced Home: How to Avoid Tax When Gain Will Exceed the $250,000 or $500,000 Ceiling	96
5.1	Overview	96
5.2	Upper-Middle-Class Victims	97
5.3	Tax Time Bomb	98
5.4	Tax Idea 1: Deferred Sale Approach	99
5.5	Tax Idea 2: The Leasehold Carve-Out	100
5.6	Tax Idea 3: The Installment Sale	103
5.7	Tax Idea 4: Conversion to Rental and Exchange	107
5.8	Summing Up	108
6	When Spouses Split	116
6.1	Overview	116
6.2	Don't Lose the Exclusion on Principal Residence Sale!	116
6.3	Transfer of Home to Spouse	117
6.4	Is It Smart to Sell Prior to Divorce?	118
6.5	How to Avoid Gain on a Vacation Home	119
6.6	Splitting Up Marital Property: Beware the Tax Trap	120
Part III	Tax Shelter from Homeowner Loopholes and Vacation Homes
7	Little-Known Loopholes Can Provide Big Savings	125
7.1	Overview	125
7.2	The Super Loophole: How to Use Home Sale Exclusion to Shield Gain on Other Real Estate from Tax	125
7.3	How to Buy Vacation Home with Tax-Free Dollars from Sale of Rental Property	128
7.4	Avoiding Tax When Your Land Includes Both House and Investment Property	132
7.5	Your Appreciated Residence Is a Tax-Treasure: How to Trade Up and Get Tax-Free Cash	134
7.6	Home Improvements: Handyman's Special Tax Shelter	135
7.7	Home Improvement Business: Tax-Free Income for Renovators	137
7.8	When a House Is Not a Home: How to Deduct Loss on Sale of Home	138
7.9	How to Get a Charitable Deduction for Your Home--And Still Live in It	140
7.10	Every Home Owner's Hidden Loophole: Nontaxable "Imputed" Income	144
8	Your Vacation Home Is a Tax Shelter	147
8.1	Overview	147
8.2	Scenario 1: Use of Vacation Home Exclusively as Vacation Home	148
8.3	Scenario 2: Use for Vacation and Rent for 14 Days or Less	149
8.4	Scenario 3: Use for Vacation and Rent for More Than 14 Days	150
8.5	Tax Loss from Rental Not Allowed	150
8.6	Figuring the Amount Deductible	153
8.7	Scenario 4: Rent to Others for the Entire Year	157
8.8	Need for Profit Motive	157
8.9	Figuring Amount of Tax Shelter	158
8.10	Hidden Nugget: A Little Personal Use	160
8.11	Depreciation: The Deduction without Cash Outlay	160
8.12	Tax Shelter Rules	164
Part IV	Retirement Benefits and Estate Planning
9	How to Get Tax-Free Dollars in Retirement from Your Home	169
9.1	Overview	169
9.2	Tax-Free Trading Down	170
9.3	How Trading Down Increases Cash Flow	170
9.4	How Much Cash from Trading Down?	171
9.5	The Tax Benefit	172
9.6	Tax-Free Reverse Mortgages	173
9.7	What Is a Reverse Mortgage, Anyway?	173
9.8	The Tax Benefit	174
9.9	How Much Cash Flow Can You Get?	175
9.10	What Type of Reverse Mortgage Is Best for You?	176
10	Reducing Estate Tax on Home	178
10.1	Overview	178
10.2	Should Spouses Own Home Jointly?	179
10.3	Do You Need Estate Tax Planning?	180
10.4	Larger Estates: How Not to Lose the Second Exemption	182
10.5	How Parent Can Cut Taxes on Vacation Home	184
10.6	Estate Planning for a Parent's Home: Using Sale-Leaseback to Shift Appreciation in Value	187
10.7	How Parents Can Escape Estate Tax on Their Homes: The Qualified Personal Residence Trust	191
	Epilogue	195
Appendix A	Instructions for Form 8829	197
Appendix B	IRS Publication 521: Moving Expenses	202
Appendix C	IRS Publication 530: Tax Information for First-Time Homeowners	222
	Index	235