XL Real Estate

How Important is Your Principal Residence

Housing has been -- and remains -- the great American dream. If you own your own home, our tax laws give you two important tax benefits: you can deduct your real estate taxes as well as the interest you pay on your mortgage while you own your house, and then when it is sold, if you meet certain technical requirements, a sizable amount of your profit is tax-free. Read More

Tax Issues: More Complicated This Year

"Only two things are inevitable: death and taxes." That's an old adage, but a third category has to be added to this list, namely "continuous talk of tax reform." Every year -- especially as we get closer to a Presidential election -- political candidates start their rhetoric about the vital need to reform our complex, outdated Internal Revenue Code. Read More

IRS Information

Capital Gains, Losses/ Sale of Home

Publication 523 Selling Your Home

New IRS Rules On The Home Sale Exclusion

In l997, Congress enacted major tax reforms. Perhaps the most significant was the provision that homeowners who lived and owned their home for a period of two years out of five years before the home was sold, were able to completely exclude from gain up to $250,000 if they were single and up to $500,000 for married couples filing a joint tax return for the year of the sale. Read More

The Tax Treatment Of Points

Points paid to obtain a mortgage to buy a house are fully deductible in the year they are paid by the borrower. It used to be that the IRS required that the borrower write a separate check to the lender for these points; in recent years, the IRS seems to have backed off of this position. However, it still makes sense to either write a separate check at closing -- or at least have the settlement statement (the HUD-1) clearly reflect the number and amount of points you are paying. Read More