1st Time Buyers $8,000 Tax Credit

[JimF]

Read the following at: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/...206291,00.html

In regard to First Time Buyers $8,000 Tax Credit. Found it intresting. Can't have a Motorhome but us 5th Wheel and TT fulltimers may be able to do something with it.

Q. Can a taxpayer who purchases a travel trailer qualify for the credit?

A. A travel trailer that is affixed to land may qualify as a principal residence.

Q. Can an individual who has lived in an RV qualify for the credit?

A. For purposes of the first-time homebuyer credit, an RV with a built-in motor is personal property that is not affixed to land and does not qualify as a principal residence. Accordingly, someone who has owned and lived in an RV within the past three years may still qualify as a first-time homebuyer.

[radioattic]

Typical government doublespeak. According to Publication 936,

Qualified Home

For you to take a home mortgage interest deduction, your debt must be secured by a qualified home. This means your main home or your second home. A home includes a house, condominium, cooperative, mobile home, house trailer, boat, or similar property that has sleeping, cooking, and toilet facilities.

So your can deduct your RV interest payment because it qualifies as a home whether you live in it full time or not, you CAN'T get a tax credit because it's... a what?

[JimF]

Oh but you can dedut the interest paid on an RV as a first or second home, has been allowed by IRS rules for the last 20 years or so. We have claimed ALL of our past RV's as well as this one and yes, we have been audited. You can get the tax credit if it is you primary home, as in use fulltimer sitting on a lot.

[Pete Hanson]

It sounds to me like the key word is "affixed" to the ground. I think that here in Massachusetts a mobile home has to have the wheels removed to be considered a primary residence and not an RV.

[JimF]

Maybe so Pete, to me affixed is as in sitting jacks down with the sewer line in, but what do I know. I do know that we are in the midst of buying a house in Fitchburg, MA and the laws there are no where near what we have in Texas, so oyur probably correct. The IRS auditor down here (Texas) is another good ol'boy redneck sitting in the next trailer over in the RV park and he thinks he's affixed.

[Waynem]

Jim,
Settling down in Mass. is giving money to the government. They will tax your retirement pay.