Tax Credit for Military home buyers and home sellers
February 15, 2010
Congress has been hard at work creating the home buyer tax credit legislation with all kinds of sections hidden away in nooks and crannies. One main program offered to help military home owners has seen a change and that one happens to be the one to aid military home owners that are in a place where they must sell their homes for less than is owed.
In November 2009, the Worker, Home ownership and Business Assistance Act was signed into law. Under this legislation, military personnel along with a few other federal employees that are serving their country on foreign land have an extra year in order to qualify for the $8,000 tax credit which is being offered to first time home buyers along with the smaller $6,500 credit for repeat buyers.
The recapture rule has also been put aside for uniformed service members, employees of the intelligence community, and members in Foreign Service.
The new law provides eligible taxpayers that enter into a contract to purchase a residence by April 30 and close prior to June 30 to benefit from the tax credit. All service personnel have another 12 months in which to benefit from the tax credit with their dates to sign a contract being April 30, 2011 and closing no later than 90 days after signing the contract.
This new rule for service personnel does include the spouse or the service personnel that serve on qualified official extended-duty service outside the United States for at least 90 days between January 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010. The Internal Revenue Service explains that only spouse must be stationed overseas to qualify for the tax credit.
For the majority of home buyers if they sell the home or the home stops being the primary resident within three years of purchase, the credit will have to be repaid. However, if the home belongs to eligible service personnel that provision will be waived if the home sold is sold due to orders sending the service member to another location that is at least fifty miles from the home. The post can be any location as long as it is 50 miles from the sold home and the service personnel will be at the new post for ninety days or more.
Military personnel may be eligible for aid if they find themselves in a bind and must sell their home for less than is owed on their mortgage, if the bind is due to a mandatory permanent transfer of duty.
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2 Comments to Tax Credit for Military home buyers and home sellers
Comments
Great thing to do for the military servants. Most of the time they cant help their move and if they have to move, they have to move. Great that the government is trying to help them out.
Ashlee´s last blog ..What is a Short Sale and am I a Candidate
Ashlee, great to have you back!
I couldn’t agree more we should do anything possible to help and support our military.
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