发现其实大部分自己想知道的问题, 都已经有人问过而且有专家答过了.??自己只要花些工夫找到相关的info就好了.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - I've always thought owning a home is a great investment for tax purposes, but I have yet to see the advantages. I've owned a home for five years now and pay between $6,000 and $7,500 a year in mortgage interest, but I don't seem to get much back at the end of the year. My refund is only about $200. Is owning a home worth it from a tax standpoint?
-- Rich Carney, Little Rock, Arkansas

First, you shouldn't use the refund check you get after filing your taxes as a measure of how much you may or may not be saving by owning a home or, for that matter, taking any other number of deductions.
The refund represents only the difference between what was withheld from your paycheck for income taxes for a given calendar year and what you eventually ended up having to pay in taxes for that year.
In other words, you could easily increase your refund simply by having your employer withhold more money from your paycheck. But that bigger refund wouldn't necessarily be a reflection of a smaller tax burden.
Begone, interest payments!
There are two main ways in which owning a home can work to your advantage in a tax sense. The first is that you get to deduct the interest payments on your home mortgage, as well as any property taxes you pay on your home.
In order to take advantage of those deductions, however, you've got to file a 1040 form and itemize your deductions. If you take the standard deduction -- that is, the deduction all taxpayers are entitled even if they don't itemize -- you don't get to separately deduct mortgage interest and property taxes.
Considering that the standard deduction for 2004 is $4,850 for a single person and $9,700 for a married person filing separately, I would think that with your home-loan interest expense and property taxes plus a few other deductions you can probably dig up, you can probably itemize.
Clearly, the higher your income and the higher the tax bracket you're in, the more you benefit from a tax deduction. But even at relatively low tax rates, being able to deduct home mortgage expense and property taxes can be a decent break.
And if your income rises while you own the home, the value of the deduction will increase as well (although as you pay down your mortgage, the amount of interest you can deduct typically declines).
Keeping the home-sale gains
You get to enjoy the second tax advantage of owning a home when you sell it. If your home appreciates in value -- and house prices have certainly been booming in recent years -- you get to exclude up to $250,0000 of that gain from taxes if you're single, and up to $500,000 if you're married.
For many people, this means they get to keep any home-sale gains without forking over a cent in taxes to Uncle Sam (although you may end up plowing much of that gain back into another home or handing it over to a landlord if you rent).
As with most tax deductions, there are a slew of conditions that apply to the various deductions and exclusions for the home. You can click here, here and here to check them out.)
One final note: while the tax advantages of home ownership should certainly be a consideration in deciding whether to own or rent, I don't think they should necessarily be the prime consideration.
If you're the type of person for whom the enjoyment of living in a home that you own outweighs the responsibilities that come with it (maintaining the home, mowing the grass, dealing with plumbing problems, etc.), then buying a home probably makes sense even if it's not the best tax deal around.
On the other hand, if roof repairs or painting trim and ridding the lawn of grub worms is your idea of a living hell -- or if the idea of settling down for five or more years in one place is anathema to you -- then you're probably better off renting, tax benefits or no.

[此贴子已经被作者于2005-6-9 18:05:19编辑过]