Approximately how much of a financial tax break would I get if I bought a house this December 2008?

Question

Approximately how much of a financial tax break would I get if I bought a house this December 2008?

Answer 1

Very little if any.  The major tax break is for interest paid on a home mortgage.  If you buy a house in December, you will have paid very little interest in the tax year which ends December 31.

The same thing applies to property taxes.  You will only get credit for 1/12 of the the taxes for the year.

Your standard deduction will likely be higher than an itemized one for the year of 2008.

Answer 2

You would not get a tax break because of the timing of your house purchase.  You will probably not have enough to itemized your deductions for 2008.  Why not buy the house on January 2, 2009?  Then I am sure you will have more than enough to itemized your deductions when you file your 2009 taxes in 2010.

Answer 3

If you are talking about deducting the mortgage interest which lets you open up a schedule A to all sorts of other deductions, too - it won't help you at all for 2008.  

If you settle in December, your first mortgage payment won't be due until about Feb 09.

for TY2009 it will help you though! That's when you can start racking up other deductible items like donating to charity.

Answer 4

You haven't given us much to work with here.  How much is your income?  How many other deductions do you already have?  How many dependents do you have, so we can estimate you much tax liability you have?  How much are you paying for the house?  How much is the mortgage?  How much are your property taxes?  You might want to ask the question and given a little more info next time.

Answer 5

The answer is probably none.  Any advantage would come from itemizing your deductions, which wouldn't be of benefit until 2009 when you paid a full year's interest along with property taxes.

Answer 6

Depends on a lot of info you don't give.  But if you buy a house in December, chances of any tax break this year are low, although in future years you would very possibly save some tax.

Answer 7

not enough info

but generally little or none for 2008 tax year

now for 2009 you should be good

you get to itemize your taxes, file Sch A and deduct interest and real estate taxes