Tax Question? buying a house

Question

I am buying a house with someone, and we are not married. Both of our names will be on the house. How should we handle taxes? Can you split the house for tax purposes? Should the person who makes the most money claim the house alone? Can one person claim the house if both names are on it?

Answer 1

Are you really in the UK where you posted, or in the US like your other question indicates?  My answer is for US, not UK.

The person who makes the payments is the one permitted to take the deductions for the mortgage interest and real estate taxes.  If you split the payments, then you split the deductions by the amount you each paid.  This assumes that you are both on the deed and the mortgage.  You can only take a deduction for interest if you actually pay it AND you are on the mortgage so you are required to pay it.  To deduct real estate taxes, you have to be on the deed, and actually pay them.