I recently purchased my father's house and I am the owner with my brother added under me. When it's time to do our taxes, can we split the mortgage payment to file with our taxes? what about the heating, electric, and phone bills, can we file them?
2007-10-15 08:05:25 · 5 answers · asked by Mai 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Taxes ➔ United States
The utility and phone bills are never deductible--they're personal expenses. You're going to get a statement at the end of the year that will tell you exactly what interest and property taxes you've paid for the year, and both of these are deductible.
As for sharing the interest and property tax payments on a home, I didn't find anything that prohibited this specifically, but you are never entitled to deduct an expense that you didn't pay. It would help if your brother's name (and yours) appear on the bank statement as the ones paying the loan.
One thing you may want to consider is that you won't use schedule A to deduct these expenses until they're higher than the standard deduction. If you split your interest deduction, it's possible that you and your brother will no longer be able to itemize at all.
I would suggest that, if you want to get the most of your tax money, one of you should take the deduction while the other uses the standard deduction. Just keep in mind that if your name doesn't appear on the bank statement as paying the loan, you won't appear to be entitled to take the interest.
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Just to clarify my answer with the others given above, in order to qualify, the interest you pay on your mortgage must be for a home that you own and live in. That means that both of you have to own the home, both of you have to live in the home, and both of you have to be paying the interest to be able to claim it.
That's a lot of verbiage; it seems like you've met all of these standards.
2007-10-15 08:50:20 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The only thing you could write off is real estate taxes and the pert of the mortgatge payment that is interest, not all of the mortgage payment. You and your brother can split the taxes and interest if you are both listed on the mortgage and on the deed. You can only deduct those if you itemize.
Utilities and phone bill, no.
2007-10-15 08:38:45 · answer #2 · answered by Judy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you each paid one half of the real estate tax and one half of the mortgage, you can each take deductions for that tax and mortgage interest. The rules say you must be legally obligated to pay those, and also must have actually paid them, in order to take the deductions. You cannot deduct taxes paid by or for your father prior to you becoming owners, since you were not legally obligated to pay those.
2007-10-15 08:59:34 · answer #3 · answered by r_kav 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What do you mean with your brother "added under you"? Do you jointly hold title to the house and mortgage or is it in your name only? Is it owner-occupied or tenant occupied?
Utility bills are not generally tax deductible.
2007-10-15 08:13:45 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2016-10-21 05:14:46 · answer #5 · answered by wexler 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋