What Interest Is Deductible?
Personal interest. Personal interest is not deductible. Examples of personal
interest include interest on a loan to purchase an automobile for personal use
and credit card and installment interest incurred for personal expenses. But
you may be able to deduct interest you pay on a qualified student loan. For
details, see Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education.
Limit on itemized deductions. Certain itemized deductions (including home mortgage
interest) are limited if your adjusted gross income is more than $139,500 ($69,750
if you are married filing a separate return).
Amount Deductible
In most cases, you will be able to deduct all of your home mortgage interest.
Whether you can deduct all of it depends on the date you took out the mortgage,
the amount of the mortgage, and your use of its proceeds.
Fully deductible interest. If all of your mortgages fit into one or more of
the following three categories at all times during the year, you can deduct
all of the interest on those mortgages. (If any one mortgage fits into more
than one category, add the debt that fits in each category to your other debt
in the same category.) The three categories are:
1) Mortgages you took out on or before October 13, 1987 (called grandfathered
debt).
2) Mortgages you took out after October 13, 1987, to buy, build, or improve
your home (called home acquisition debt), but only if throughout 2003 these
mortgages plus any grandfathered debt totaled $1 million or less ($500,000 or
less if married filing separately).
3) Mortgages you took out after October 13, 1987, other than to buy, build,
or improve your home (called home equity debt), but only if throughout 2002
these mortgages totaled $100,000 or less ($50,000 or less if married filing
separately) and totaled no more than the fair market value of your home reduced
by (1) and (2).
The dollar limits for the second and third categories apply to the combined
mortgages on your main home and second home.
Limits on deduction. You cannot fully deduct interest on a mortgage that does
not fit into any of the three categories listed above. If this applies to you,
see Part II of Publication 936 to figure the amount of interest you can deduct.
Points
General rule. You generally cannot deduct the full amount of points
in the year paid. Because they are prepaid interest, you generally must deduct
them over the life (term) of the mortgage.
Investment Interest
If you borrow money to buy property you hold for investment, the interest you
pay is investment interest. You can deduct investment interest subject to limits
However, you cannot deduct interest you incurred to produce tax-exempt income.
Nor can you deduct interest expenses on straddles.
Investment interest does not include any qualified home mortgage interest or
any interest taken into account in computing income or loss from a passive activity.
