CHAPTER 4 Your Home

Home ownership is part of the American dream. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 63.7% of Americans owned their own homes in the second quarter of 2017. There are many reasons that we want to own rather than rent a home—for example, as a way to build up equity. But there are also sound tax reasons favoring home ownership. Certain expenses of home ownership are deductible. And when you sell your home, some or all of your profit may be tax free. If you had problems with your mortgage or lost your home to foreclosure, there may be special tax breaks for you.

This chapter explains the tax breaks you can claim with respect to your home. Casualties and disasters that can befall your home, and the deductions you can claim for them, are explained in Chapter 13. The home office ...

Get J.K. Lasser's 1001 Deductions and Tax Breaks 2018 now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.