Home Page link  

HoH question

 

Taxes General Forum - Tax professionals meeting place and answers to queries. (Moderated)

 Post an article  get this group's latest topics as an RSS feed add this group's latest topics to your My MSN content add this group's latest topics to your My Yahoo content  add this group's latest topics to your Google content  YahooMyWeb Yahoo!  Google Google  Windows Live Favorites Windows Live  del.icio.us del.icio.us  digg digg  Add to Netscape Netscape
Subject Author Date
HoH question Jason 10-13-2007
Posted by Jason on October 13, 2007, 11:06 pm
Please log in for more thread options
I was a widower with twin sons age 2 when I remarried in
2003. My second wife was divorced with a son age 4. In May
of 2007, I was promoted and transferred from Indianapolis to
Atlanta. She refused to relocate and we legally separated.
The property settlement has me paying $500 per month against
the home equity loan on an addition made to her house to
accommodate me and my sons and it gives me a 30% lien on the
house less the balance of the addition. I pay directly to
the bank.

I have my sons. She has her son. We had no children
together. I say we can both file as unmarried heads of
household. I also say I can deduct the interest on the home
equity loan payments. The first two tax pros I interviewed
say we'll both get audited if we do that and that the loan
payments should be classified as non-dedcutible alimony.

Am I out to lunch or are they?

Jason

<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
<< to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
<< Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. >>
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>

Posted by Phil Marti on October 14, 2007, 10:11 pm
Please log in for more thread options

> I was a widower with twin sons age 2 when I remarried in
> 2003. My second wife was divorced with a son age 4. In May
> of 2007, I was promoted and transferred from Indianapolis to
> Atlanta. She refused to relocate and we legally separated.
> The property settlement has me paying $500 per month against
> the home equity loan on an addition made to her house to
> accommodate me and my sons and it gives me a 30% lien on the
> house less the balance of the addition. I pay directly to
> the bank.
>
> I have my sons. She has her son. We had no children
> together. I say we can both file as unmarried heads of
> household. I also say I can deduct the interest on the home
> equity loan payments. The first two tax pros I interviewed
> say we'll both get audited if we do that and that the loan
> payments should be classified as non-dedcutible alimony.

I'll defer to someone who can examine all the paperwork to
determine the treatment of your ongoing payments.

Were I you I'd pick someone who knows that you can both file
as HofH. I'm assuming here that you both meet the
requirements for a marital status of either single or
"considered unmarried" for tax purposes. See IRS
Publication 501.

--
Phil Marti
Clarksburg, MD

<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
<< to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
<< Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. >>
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>

Posted by Bill Brown on October 16, 2007, 1:19 am
Please log in for more thread options

> I was a widower with twin sons age 2 when I remarried in
> 2003. My second wife was divorced with a son age 4. In May
> of 2007, I was promoted and transferred from Indianapolis to
> Atlanta. She refused to relocate and we legally separated.
> The property settlement has me paying $500 per month against
> the home equity loan on an addition made to her house to
> accommodate me and my sons and it gives me a 30% lien on the
> house less the balance of the addition. I pay directly to
> the bank.
>
> I have my sons. She has her son. We had no children
> together. I say we can both file as unmarried heads of
> household. I also say I can deduct the interest on the home
> equity loan payments. The first two tax pros I interviewed
> say we'll both get audited if we do that and that the loan
> payments should be classified as non-dedcutible alimony.
>
> Am I out to lunch or are they?

Them, at least mostly.

Based on the facts you presented both you and and your wife
qualify for head of household filing status.

It is less clear whether your house payments should be
characterized as alimony. However, if the payments are
alimony then they are deductible by you and reportable by
your wife as income. As far as I know, there is no such
thing as "non-deductible alimony."

Regards,
Bill

<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
<< to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
<< Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. >>
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>

Similar ThreadsPosted
IRA question November 2, 2006, 11:56 pm
Question January 18, 2007, 4:01 am
W-2 Box 12 question April 13, 2007, 3:31 am
K-1 question June 24, 2007, 10:41 pm
HSA Question September 12, 2007, 10:05 pm
MLP Tax Question September 20, 2007, 1:00 am
Re: HoH question October 17, 2007, 2:09 am
Re: HoH question October 17, 2007, 11:42 pm
Another Soc Sec question October 29, 2007, 11:26 pm
Second Question January 10, 2008, 9:08 am

Contact Us | Privacy Policy
This site is not affiliated with Intuit - makers of Quickbooks and Quicken software
This site is not affiliated with Sage Software - makers of Peachtree accounting software
XML SitemapXML Sitemap