Mortgage Interest as a deduction in -
Is mortgage interest tax deductible if your home is your principal residence?
My husband heard something on the radio this past weekend from one of your experts saying there is a way to deduct mortgage interest?
david ingram replies:
The answer is yes for almost everyone although not necessarily all the first year and you may have to re-arrange your affairs significantly to make it happen.
However, it is ALWAYS worth it, even if the total process takes ten years..
You should call Freda at (604) 731-8900. Freda works with Fred Snyder, the host of "ITS YOUR MONEY" on 600AM (600 on the AM dial) AM every Sunday from 9 to 10:30 AM and on CKNW (980 on the AM dial) every Sunday from 6 to 7 PM.
I would be happy top consult with you about the hows and whys but I would charge you $450 plus GST. Fred's office will give it to you in writing combined with a written financial plan for free by calling Freda.
You can read more by going to www.centa.com and reading the November 2001 newsletter in the top left hand box or getting hold of the Smith Manouvre which expands it.
The following will help as well.
My
wife and I rent a basement suite and in the spring bought a condo and started
renting that right away and will be following your instructions on the “smith
maneuver” and want to be clear that we can put the rent from both the basement
suite and the condo down on our mortgage and then use the line of credit to pay
all the expenses on the condo (including the
mortgage)?
Also,
we would like to have your office prepare our tax return so how soon prior to
the dead line next year would you take new
clients?
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david
ingram replies:
as you have described your action, the interest on the
line of credit set up to handles the expenses of the rental condo should be
deductible under current legislation and the tax cases that are out
there.
If you intend to use us, we would like the information as son as
possible, by the end of March if possible. However, we do not appreciate
piecemeal information where you send something when you know it is not all
there.
Please hold off sending to us until you have
everything.
As well as the Smith Maneuver, you should read the November
20012 newsletter in the top left hand box at www.centa.com.
Reading the following and the
tax cases involved will help a bit.
My question is:
Canadian-specific
QUESTION: We have a rental property generating regular
rental income and got enough equity to cover our outstanding principle
residence's mortgage. Is there a way we can move this equity to pay off the
principle residence's mortgage and still be able to legitimately claim interest
payable as tax deductible?
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david
ingram replies:
Had 91 people at a free seminar at the Holiday INN on
Sunday August 12th.
The following is the handout at that seminar.
Hope it helps.
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We recently bought a 4plex in Kitimat as a
rental investment. We used a Scotia home equity loan for the down payment and a
TD mortgage for the other 75%. We have a mortgage on our principal residence in
Langley of $244,000. Our monthly payments on the 4plex will total about $1,300 ,
and the rents will be about $2,000. What would be the smartest method for paying
this mortgage? What do we do with the excess cash flow? Is it possible to deduct
the interest on our primary residence mortgage? Thanks.
david ingram replies:
I had 91 people at a free seminar on this subject today and am just about all "free"ed up on the subject.
You should be taking the rent you receive and use it to reduce the non-deductible mortgage on your Langley house.
You can find out more by reading my November 2001 Newsletter in the top left hand box at www.centa.com.
Reading Fraser Smith's Book 'THE SMITH MANOUVRE' will also give you ideas on how to make the Langley Mortgage deductible.
Your excess flow should be used to reduce the $244,000 mortgage as soon as possible. Of course, the interest on the down payment loan is also deductible on Form T776.
The following is part of the handout at today's seminar -
David Ingram's US/Canada
Services
Mortgage Interest as a Deduction in 2007 – dealing with GAAR
I first conceived of this method in 1975/76 when a client of mine had a rental duplex and had a tenant who was injured in a car accident. It was at the time of the changeover from private insurance to ICBC and the injured single mother tenant was waiting for a car accident insurance settlement.
My client allowed his tenant to stay in the half duplex for more than a year and to stay afloat him self, he borrowed money to pay the duplex bills. When doing his 1975 tax return, we deducted the interest paid on the loan because the purpose of the loan was clearly to fund the rental duplex.
When he finally got his cheque for more than $5,000 from the tenant, it would have been all over if he had just paid the loan off and we had not thought about it. But my client, bless his soul, phoned and asked if he had to pay off the loan (which was deductible) or could he use the money for another non-deductible purpose.
My answer, after thinking about it for a day or so, was that he could use the $5,000+ for any purpose he could think of. At the same time, I said this, I was also writing something for the North Shore Credit Union and put my ‘new’ method of making the mortgage interest deductible in this report which they then published as part of an advertisement in the North shore News in (I think) November, 1976.
I expanded it and it was
next published by Hancock House Publishers in my Investment Guide
in 1979, 1980 and 1985 and 1991 and BC Business magazine in 1979.
Sometime in there, the Ontario Dental Association also ran it in their magazine.
It then became part of a lot of Internet sites and can be found in
the March 1997 and November 2001
newsletters at www.centa.com in the top left hand
corner.
I was pretty heavily involved in the Federal Conservative Party (ran for the North Shore Nomination in 1978) and am proud to say that we got mortgage interest as a tax deduction on the 1979 federal Income tax return.
Unfortunately, Joe Clark, the Prime Minister at the time, did not count the number of yes votes in the House (there were enough if he had waited for the Social credit members to arrive) and lost a non-confidence motion on Dec 12, 1979, and on Feb 18, 1980, Pierre Trudeau was re-elected as Prime Minister and even though there was a 4-page form and a line on the T-1 General that year, the deduction was killed retroactively by the liberal government and we no longer had this benefit for all without manipulating the paperwork.
In 1981, Fred Snyder was running a series of seminars and teaching my method to a lot of different groups. In one seminar, he taught it to Realtors, McCauley, Nicolls, Maitland and Company and the manager Fraser Smith wrote Fred a letter thanking him for explaining the methods. In 1985, Fraser Smith than published the SMITH MANOUVRE which explains the method in great detail and at the time, VANCITY Savings Credit Union was featured in the book and was very good at setting up the method.
Then on Oct 27, 1988 John Singleton had approximately $300,000 in his lawyer’s capital account. He got permission from his law partners to take the $300,000 out (it was his but was being used as security in his law practice). He used it to buy a house and then used the house as security to borrow $300,000 which he then put back into the law firm's capital account to fund the law practice. This was all done in one day. Of course, since the money in the account was now borrowed for business purposes, he deducted the interest on his 1988 and 1989 returns and the Tax Department turned him down. He appealed and lost in the Tax Court of Canada but won in the Federal court of Appeals. The CRA appealed to the Supreme Court and in October 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada found in favour of John Singleton in a 5 to 2 decision.
This case has now been
quoted and cited in many other cases. In OVERS 2006 TCC
26, Mr Overs paid back a shareholder-loan, which
would have been included in his income. By doing what he did,
co-incidentally, the interest expense was made deductible.
Mrs Overs
borrowed funds to purchase shares of his holding company at their fair market
value. However, Mr Overs did NOT use a 73(1)
rollover as Lipson did. Therefore, no capital gain was
realized but the attribution rules in section 74(1) worked to transfer the
interest expense on the wife’s borrowed funds -- back to
him.
Judge
Little turned down the CRA’s claim that tax benefits arose from this
series of transactions. The taxpayer followed the Income
Tax Act in repaying his loan and transferring the shares to his wife.
Justice Little ruled that the transactions were NOT avoidance
transactions and therefore GAAR did not apply. Judge Little ruled
that none of the transactions could be considered “abusive tax avoidance”.
And Judge Bowman
ruled in favour of Evans (2005 TCC
684). Judge Bowman found there were no avoidance transactions
in what could only be described as a super complicated and very sophisticated
series of business restructurings that ended up with a former shareholder
receiving cash by using specific rules in the Act, including
sections 85 (rollovers), 110.6 (capital gains exemption), 112 (tax free
inter-corporate dividends), 74.5 (attribution) and ss. 84(3) (deemed dividends).
Judge
Bowman assumed that these ‘were’ avoidance transactions.
He then dealt with them on an individual basis to decide whether the
avoidance transactions were ‘abusive’. His final decision was
that provisions of the Income Tax Act operated as intended and there could not
be any abuse.
However, Judge
Bowman was not of the same opinion with the LIPSON Family
who lost in Lipson v. The
Queen, 2006 TCC
148
Mr Lipson owned a profitable business
and:
- The Lipsons contracted to buy a home in Forest Hills in Toronto
- Mrs Lipson took out a demand loan to buy share in the family business from her husband.
- The shares were transferred to Mrs Lipson as a section 73(1) rollover
- Mr Lipson used the funds to buy the house
- They “both” took out a mortgage on the house to repay the demand loan
The following was an excel spreadsheet that was presented and you might be able to figure it out.
1 | WHY BOTHER MAKING YOUR MORTGAGE INTEREST DEDUCTIBLE?? | 1 | ||||||||
2 | by david Ingram - www.centa.com - | (604) 980-0321 | 2 | |||||||
3 | WELL - LET'S PRETEND THAT YOU HAVE AN OUTSTANDING | $ 100,000.00 | 3 | |||||||
4 | Let's pretend that you are paying 6% | 0.06 | times | 6000.00 | 4 | |||||
5 | 5 | |||||||||
6 | How much do you have to earn to pay | 6000 | 6000.00 | 6 | ||||||
7 | At a | 0.3 | marginal tax rate | you would need | 8571.43 | 7 | ||||
8 | you would pay tax of | 2571.43 | 8 | |||||||
9 | To Have enough to pay the interest of | 6000.00 | 9 | |||||||
10 | TWO | 10 | ||||||||
11 | WELL - LET'S PRETEND THAT YOU HAVE AN OUTSTANDING | $ 300,000.00 | 11 | |||||||
12 | Let's pretend that you are paying 6% | 0.06 | times | 18000.00 | 12 | |||||
13 | 13 | |||||||||
14 | How much do you have to earn to pay | 18000 | 18000.00 | 14 | ||||||
15 | At a | 0.35 | marginal tax rate | you would need | 27692.31 | 15 | ||||
16 | you would pay tax of | 9692.31 | 16 | |||||||
17 | To Have enough to pay the interest of | 18000.00 | 17 | |||||||
18 | THREE | 18 | ||||||||
19 | WELL - LET'S PRETEND THAT YOU HAVE AN OUTSTANDING | $ 600,000.00 | 19 | |||||||
20 | Let's pretend that you are paying 6% | 0.06 | times | 36000.00 | 20 | |||||
21 | 21 | |||||||||
22 | How much do you have to earn to pay | 36000 | 36000.00 | 22 | ||||||
23 | At a | 0.4 | marginal tax rate | you would need | 60000.00 | 23 | ||||
24 | you would pay tax of | 24000.00 | 24 | |||||||
25 | To Have enough to pay the interest of | 36000.00 | 25 | |||||||
26 | 26 | |||||||||
27 | You can easily see that the larger the mortgage payment | 27 | ||||||||
28 | the more money you have to make and the larger your | 28 | ||||||||
29 | marginal tax rate would be - BC runs from 23% up to $35,000 | 29 | ||||||||
30 | and is 44% over $118,000 or so | 30 | ||||||||
31 | DEDUCTIBLE | 31 | ||||||||
32 | But if the last mortgage of | 600000 | could be deductible | 36000.00 | 32 | |||||
33 | the interest paid of | 36000 | would get a tax deduction of | 14400.00 | 33 | |||||
34 | and you would only need to earn the difference | 21600.00 | 34 | |||||||
35 | instead of the | 60000 | on line 23 above | 35 | ||||||
36 | Why only | 21600 | 36 | |||||||
37 | Well, you could earn | 21600 | , borrow | 14400 | (line 33) | 37 | ||||
38 | for a few days from Fred, and then pay Fred back with the refund | 38 | ||||||||
39 | 39 | |||||||||
40 | The difference in earnings is | 60000 | line 23 | 40 | ||||||
41 | minus new necessity of | 21600 | Line 34 | 41 | ||||||
42 | for an earnings savings of | 38400 | 42 | |||||||
43 | or a monthly difference of | 3200 | 43 | |||||||
44 | 44 | |||||||||
45 | And, if you are self employed as I am, I would have to do | 45 | ||||||||
46 | $200,000 of business and pay $140,000 of expenses to have a profit of | 46 | ||||||||
47 | $60,000 left over to pay the tax on the $60,000 on line 23 | (Aug 11, 2007) | 47 |
And this will also show the mathematics of paying down a mortgage with the earnings from a Mutual fund.
Using New Securities Account to make mortgage deductible | This is to show the method only | |||||||||||
Most, if not all people buy a Mutual fund and have the dividends reinvested | ||||||||||||
in the fund. Do NOT DO THAT if you want a deductible mortgage | Non | |||||||||||
Deductible | Non | HELOC | ||||||||||
Assume you have a borrowed | 100,000 | to buy funds and they pay | 0.06 | original | less | Deductible | interest | |||||
A | B | C | D | E | F New | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
You pay | 0.06 | pay your | 35% Tax | borrow for | Invest't | Mutual | earnings | worth | mortgage | earnings | original | not de- |
borrowed | interest | Refund | new funds | loan | Fund | 0.06 | ductible | |||||
2007 | 100000 | 6000 | 2100 | 6000 | 106000 | 100000 | 6000 | 106000 | 100000 | 6000 | 94000 | 6000 |
2008 | 106000 | 6360 | 2226 | 6360 | 112360 | 106000 | 6360 | 112360 | 94000 | 6360 | 87640 | 5640 |
2009 | 112360 | 6742 | 2360 | 6742 | 119102 | 112360 | 6742 | 119102 | 87640 | 6742 | 80898 | 5258 |
2010 | 119102 | 7146 | 2501 | 7146 | 126248 | 119102 | 7146 | 126248 | 80898 | 7146 | 73752 | 4854 |
2011 | 126248 | 7575 | 2651 | 7575 | 133823 | 126248 | 7575 | 133823 | 73752 | 7575 | 66177 | 4425 |
2012 | 133823 | 8029 | 2810 | 8029 | 141852 | 133823 | 8029 | 141852 | 66177 | 8029 | 58148 | 3971 |
2013 | 141852 | 8511 | 2979 | 8511 | 150363 | 141852 | 8511 | 150363 | 58148 | 8511 | 49637 | 3489 |
2014 | 150363 | 9022 | 3158 | 9022 | 159385 | 150363 | 9022 | 159385 | 49637 | 9022 | 40615 | 2978 |
2015 | 159385 | 9563 | 3347 | 9563 | 168948 | 159385 | 9563 | 168948 | 40615 | 9563 | 31052 | 2437 |
2016 | 168948 | 10137 | 3548 | 10137 | 179085 | 168948 | 10137 | 179085 | 31052 | 10137 | 20915 | 1863 |
2017 | 179085 | 10745 | 3761 | 10745 | 189830 | 179085 | 10745 | 189830 | 20915 | 10745 | 10170 | 1255 |
2018 | 189830 | 11390 | 3986 | 11390 | 201220 | 189830 | 11390 | 201220 | 10170 | 11390 | -1220 | |
Because the earnings from the mutual fund are mostly dividends and capital gains which are very tax efficient | ||||||||||||
there will be little tax on the earnings - certainly less than half of the tax savings in column D | ||||||||||||
In this example, I have assumed an interest only HELOC and assumed that you would have paid your regular non-deductible interest | ||||||||||||
which would decrease each year because of the principal being paid down in column K. | column M represents HELOC interest | |||||||||||
Every one's situation is different. YOUR cash flow will be different. And to escape GARR, you must be making a business decision | ||||||||||||
If you wish to make your mortgage deductible. A perceived increase in earnings from a mutual fund loan would likely be sufficient | ||||||||||||
but there are NO, NONE, NOT ANY Guarantees. | ||||||||||||
If this situation interests you, you are advised to get a written financial plan from Fred Snyder FIRST - His Number is (604) 731-8900 | ||||||||||||
|
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david ingram, home office phone (604) 980-0321 - Please do NOT phone before 10 AM or after 9 PM but you can phone 7 days a week | ||||||||||||
there are NO message machines - If you do leave a message with a person, If I do not get back in 4 hours, I WILL NOT BE RETURNING | ||||||||||||
the call - I leave it to YOU to follow up. I get over 700 emails a day and my record for phone calls on April 30 2006 was over 140. |
I hope the formatting stays with the email.
Not sure if this will help or not. What you should do is get Fred Snyder to do a written financial plan for you. see the red a couple of lines up.
Every Thursday at 12 noon and 7 PM, Fred Snyder of Dundee Wealth Management
presents free Financial Seminars for his clients, potential clients and anyone who phones and asks to attend.
THERE is NO CHARGE! (I used to charge up to $999.00 for essentially the same thing)
AND - NO ONE'S ARM IS TWISTED TO BUY SOMETHING.
They are presented at the Dundee Boardroom (holds about 30 people max)
1764 West 7th
Vancouver, BC
phone (604) 731-8900 - ask for Freda to register for free.
These are genuine educational seminars dealing with everything from how to buy a house to making your mortgage tax deductible to buying an RRSP to alternatives to RRSP accounts to estate planning. So what started as 13 separate seminars has now evolved into 23 separate topics.
IT IS NOT UNUSUAL FOR PEOPLE TO COME TO ALL OF THEM.
ONE LADY CAME TO 53 separate seminars and her husband came to about 20 with her.
If you have a financial consultant, bring them. People have brought their bankers and life insurance agents with them.
Take your spouse, your best friend, your son, your daughter, your mother or your worst enemy But do phone 604-731-8900
Fred Snyder also is the host of ITS YOUR MONEY every Sunday morning on CHBD (600 on AM dial) from 9:00 to 10:30. This is a phone in financial show which I appear as a guest on the last Sunday of every month. (Originally I was the co-host but the program is really devoted to BC finances because of BC Securities Legislation and my practice is world wide.) You can listen to 4 weeks back at www.600am.com and listen to the program live around the world every Sunday morning at the same spot. We have taken calls from around the world. In one case, a lady phoned from Florida, got her answer and then asked if I was the David ingram she knew in Regina back in 1959. Small world as they say.
Call (604) 280-0600 with your question on Sunday Morning.
And as of July 20, 2008, IT'S YOUR MONEY also appears in a different version LIVE on CKNW from 6 PM to 7 PM as a phone in show to answer your questions. Call (604) 280-9898 or 1-877-399-9898 or *9898 on your cell to get your question on the air.
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US / Canada / Mexico tax, Immigration and working Visa Specialists
US / Canada Real Estate Specialists
My Home office is at:
North Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7N 3L7
Cell (604) 657-8451 -
(604) 980-0321 Fax (604) 980-0325
Calls welcomed from 10 AM to 9 PM 7 days a week Vancouver (LA) time - (please do not fax or phone outside of those hours as this is a home office) expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service help.
$1,700 would be for two people with income from two countries
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