While it may appear at first glance that the new tax bill won’t affect homeowners overall, you have to look at the fine print to realize the new rates and tables may actually knock some homeowners out of the mortgage interest deduction game. At the same time, for tax payers who earned more than $47,450 in 2002 – you will notice a tremendous reduction in taxes, as you drop from a tax rate of 27 percent down to 15 percent (don’t tell me that won’t affect an economy or two.)

If you were on the cusp of the two tax brackets, your mortgage interest deduction should now become a very important part of your tax strategy. If it brings you down to the lower bracket, you’re going to save hundreds of dollars over last year’s numbers. Keep in mind, I’m not an accountant, but just look at the tables at www.cch.com (the web site for CCH Incorporated, a leading provider of tax and business law information and software) and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

For those in the lower tax brackets, it may work best for you to look at taking the standard deduction instead of deducting your home mortgage interest. In the past, a tax payer would weigh the difference between adding up all allowable deductions and compare them to the standard deduction. For tax payers filing jointly, that standard deduction jumps from $7,950 to $9,500 with the new tables.

Here’s what I’m talking about: Let’s say you’re a homeowner of a condo or manufactured home in Florida with a mortgage that started out at $35,000, 6 percent, 30 years – your interest payments the first year would only be $2,983.28, according to the mortgage/amortization calculator I used at www.AccessNational.com.

That means you would have to come up with nearly $6,500 more deductions elsewhere to be able to use that home mortgage interest as a substantial itemized deduction on your form 1040. With charitable donations and a kid or two, that might not be a problem. If not, I’m no rocket scientist, but go for the higher standard deduction – it looks like it would make sense.

Regardless of what your mortgage interest deduction ends up being, the new rates (all brackets above 15 percent) will most likely drop your tax bill. If you meet the itemized deduction limit, your mortgage interest deduction will lower your tax bill even more.

In addition, by expanding the 15 percent bracket by $9,350 for married filing jointly class – the marriage penalty just got a lot less taxing (no pun intended). The mortgage interest deduction really takes a bite out of your tax bill if you were earning right at $55,000 - $58,000 last year, because now, you don’t have to hunt around for that extra $9,350 in deductions to drop into a lower rate.

Finally, the marriage penalty is starting to look more like a marriage bonus. (Hey guys – if you’ve been holding off popping the question – take the extra tax savings, make a down payment on a ring and take her out to dinner. Ladies, you can thank me later.)

Another area of tax savings will be in the arena of capital gains. All the talk about cutting capital gains kept centering around the rich and famous and how this benefits them in their sales of stocks and bonds. Well, I know a few middle income, old folks who have invested in real estate all their lives who are going to benefit immensely from this rate change.

The 20 percent tax on long-term capital gains will now drop to 15 percent. Long-term capital gains are gains acquired from assets held more than a year. And here’s a double bonus: the rate is retroactive to sales on or after May 6, 2003.

This means if your grandpa sold his investment property this year and realized a capital gain of $100,000 – the change in the capital gains rate will save him $5,000. Now why would it be better for Uncle Sam to get that extra $5,000 instead of grandpa parceling it out to his grandkids if he wants?

If your income is in the 10 or 15 percent brackets, your capital gains tax rate is cut in half to 5 percent and eventually will be dropped to zero by 2008.

The tax bill can help a lot of people who have investments or equity in real estate. Get to know the law to find out how it will benefit you.

Published: June 6, 2003

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Mr. Carr has covered real estate since 1989. He is the author of Real Estate Investing Made Simple. Got a personal real estate issue? Post your questions and comments at Anthony’s blog: commonsenserealestate.blogspot.com.