2nd home tax question

Can CPAs be sued for malpractice? Run, don't walk, away from this idiot and find a tax accountant who knows what he/she is talking about!

Whoa!! Hold on! What's wrong with the CPA's advice? If you read the OP statement carefully, you will see that this house may not the second home but the third! OP is already deducting interest on two properties. We need more facts to be able to tell what is going on here but the position of the CPA is not, on the surface, outrageous. Lanny K. Williams, CPA Nawarat, Williams & Co., Ltd. Income Tax Services for Expatriate Americans

If it is your only second home mortgage interest is deductible on Schedule A (subject to the $1,000,000 acquisition indebtedness and $100,000 equity indebtedness limits). If this is your 3rd (or greater home) there is no additional Schedule A deduction for interest and there is no option of adding the interest paid to your basis.

For every $100 you pay in mortgage interest you save a max of $35 in federal income taxes. If that was your only reason for purchasing the property then you are losing money.

How many times will you allow him to be wrong before you find another tax preparer?

The third? he said the SC house was the 2nd home (personal residence), and I see why, since he's paying interest also on a lot next door to his primary residence. It would appear that that lot does not have a house on it and has been amalgamated with the land on which the primary sets. However if that lot is not part and parcel at this time of the primary lot and home, it might be investment property, right? ChEAr$, Harlan

I'd consider the (empty?) lot next to the first home as part of that home's property. Even if not, it isn't a "second home". Seth