I'll be getting an inheritance that could pay off my mortgage of about $65K.

Question

I have a $780 monthly mtg. payment with about $1,365 SS plus $500 from invertments income a month. My tax man says not to pay off mtg. as it's a good tax write off. I have about 8 more years to pay on the 15 year loan. How much longer do I have to worry about income tax? Wouldn't paying off mtg. free up $780 a month so I could relax and not scrimp so much?

Answer 1

Reverse Morgage, Buy investment property~

Answer 2

If this is you only income you should not be paying income tax in the first place.  May be that you need a new tax man.  But in any case pay off the mortgage.  

Answer 3

You clearly need a new tax man; yours is incompetent.  With your income you don't pay any income tax anyway so a mortgage is useless to you as a tax saving vehicle.  You'll do much better by paying off that mortgage.

Answer 4

I would pay off my mortgage and invest some of the money. There are plenty other things you can do for tax write offs, depending on what you do.

Answer 5

If you have no other income, you are not receiving any tax benefit from the mortgage.   Keeping the mortgage for tax purposes makes no sense, and if you have the cash to pay it off and have no better purpose for the cash, then it makes sense to pay off your mortgage.

Answer 6

I'd go ahead and pay off the mortgage, as long as you have an emergency fund available.  Tax write-offs in the second half of the time paying a mortgage get pretty small anyway, since more is going to principal (NOT deductible), and less and less is going to interest.

You'll owe income tax as long as you have income above the limit to file.On $500 a month, if that's your only income, you won't owe any, at least not federal.  Sounds like the only one benefiting from your "tax deductions" for interest at this point is your tax man.

Answer 7

Even if you paid tax, I would be hard pressed to come up with a guaranteed scenario where it was 'better' to have the mortgage.

People get mortgages because they can't afford to pay cash.