Without motion by Congress, a series of tax changes might be in place for all Americans at the tip of 2025, no matter who’s elected president in November. Many provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (also referred to as Trump’s tax plan) is expiring. Four of those expirations could help many householders.
Although December 31, 2025 seems light years away, homeowners should concentrate on the potential changes coming relating to tax planning. If you already own a house, you could possibly once more reap tax savings when the TCJA expires. For aspiring homeowners, your dream home could turn into a bit more cost-effective when the tax advantages of homeownership return to pre-Trump levels.
Increased property tax deduction
The Trump tax plan was tough on homeowners in high cost of living areas. The 2017 TCJA limited the quantity state and native taxes (SALT), of which a person could only deduct $10,000. This amount has not been adjusted for inflation, meaning it has lost value over time. There can be no distinction between people filing single or married tax returns and other people filing jointly. In plain English, two people can be entitled to a complete of $20,000 in SALT deductions. A married couple can be entitled to only $10,000 in SALT deductions.
SALT deductions are essential for high-income individuals in high-tax states like California or New York. The SALT cap also limits deductions for property taxes, which implies higher taxes for many householders in no-income-tax states like Florida, Nevada and Texas.
It doesn’t take a high home value to generate $10,000 or more in property taxes. Property taxes are pretty high in Texas, and you could possibly hit the $10,000 SALT limit with a house that costs Only $565,000. This assumes there are not any other state and native taxes in your income.
If you purchase a house in California, an $800,000 home will put you on the SALT limit on property taxes alone. Of course, with California’s progressive tax system, you’ll probably hit the SALT limit even with a more modest home, assuming you had income to pay the mortgage and taxes on your own home. I need to also indicate that the median list price Real estate prices in Los Angeles County was $1 million in June 2024, in accordance with Realtor.com.
As a Los Angeles-based financial planner, I hope this pesky a part of the Trump tax plan expires. This will help lots of my friends and clients fully deduct all state and native taxes they pay.
Increased mortgage deduction
When I purchased my first home in 2007, buyers could deduct the interest on the primary million of mortgage debt. This amount was the identical whether it was the primary mortgage or in the event you had taken a number of the equity out of the house.
As it stands, you may deduct mortgage interest on the primary $750,000 of the loan through the tip of tax yr 2025. The TCJA also limits deductions for mortgage debt that may not specifically related to the acquisition of your own home.
When the TCJA expires, the quantity of mortgage interest you may deduct increases again to $1 million ($500,000 if filing individually) of your mortgage.
While this difference may not seem to be a giant deal, given the severe housing shortage across much of the United States, increasingly homeowners have mortgages starting from $750,000 to $1,000,000 or more.
Considering how difficult it’s for younger borrowers to afford a house at today’s prices, they appear to understand any additional tax profit available to them.
Deduction of moving costs might be possible again
The tax deduction for moving expenses could also be reinstated when the TCJA expires. This signifies that in the event you moved for work reasons, you may deduct the moving expenses out of your taxes. If you’ve got ever moved before, you realize how expensive and stressful it could actually be.
Just so you realize, in the event you moved for work during tax years 2018 through 2025 and your employer paid in your move, the moving expenses were considered compensation. This means you needed to pay taxes on the moving expenses. Ouch! If you had known this prematurely, you would possibly not have lugged that Ikea sofa across the country.
Tax deduction for home office might be more advantageous
Since lots of you worked from home through the COVID pandemic, you were probably disenchanted to seek out out that you simply weren’t eligible for the Deduction for home office unless you were self-employed.
If the house office deduction provisions expire, hundreds of thousands of hard-working Americans who work at home for a part of their workweek may benefit from a big tax break.
Assuming the old rules are reinstated, staff with W-2 status could deduct a big selection of unreimbursed work-related expenses, including mileage, home office supplies, union dues, uniforms, web, phone, web, utilities, and even meals.
I might never recommend that anyone buy a house only for the tax advantages. However, the tax advantages of owning a house might help make that investment more priceless in the long term. Expect changes or adjustments to our tax system no matter whether Trump or Harris is elected president in November.