I love it when morons change the tax rules in ways that require us to keep paperwork that we wouldn't need under the old rules. So here is the situation using some made-up numbers:
I bought my house in 1999 for $150K and got married later that year.
At some point I got a HELOC. I have no idea what the balance was.
I got divorced in 2003 and had to refinance. At the time I went ahead and rolled the HELOC into the primary loan because I had to refinance anyway and a 30 year fixed had a better interest rate than the HELOC did.
At some point I got a new HELOC
During this time I did a lot of things for the house: new roof, new siding, new HVAC, kitchen remodel, 2 bath remodels, etc.
I did at least 2 more refinances and at least one of them I rolled the HELOC back into the loan and one of them I took cash out because my rental property repairs were bleeding me dry. The last loan was more like $200K in 2012.
So the problem is that in the past, so long as the money was in the home loan it was deductible. Now these idiots are asking me in very simple terms how much of my loan is for things spent on my house and I have no paper trail. I only have the HUD form from the last refinance. Before they changed the rules on me, I didn't need to know.
Worse, the money that I put into the rental properties would have been a business expense from an interest perspective, but I didn't bother to write a loan to myself because it was already deductible as a home loan.
So how TF do you untangle that mess into a clean story that a bureaucrat who might possibly have a below average IQ will understand? It seems like an undue burden for the government to expect 2003 me to anticipate tax reform that doesn't become law until 2018 and start saving home improvement receipts to explain the increases in loan balance.
I bought my house in 1999 for $150K and got married later that year.
At some point I got a HELOC. I have no idea what the balance was.
I got divorced in 2003 and had to refinance. At the time I went ahead and rolled the HELOC into the primary loan because I had to refinance anyway and a 30 year fixed had a better interest rate than the HELOC did.
At some point I got a new HELOC
During this time I did a lot of things for the house: new roof, new siding, new HVAC, kitchen remodel, 2 bath remodels, etc.
I did at least 2 more refinances and at least one of them I rolled the HELOC back into the loan and one of them I took cash out because my rental property repairs were bleeding me dry. The last loan was more like $200K in 2012.
So the problem is that in the past, so long as the money was in the home loan it was deductible. Now these idiots are asking me in very simple terms how much of my loan is for things spent on my house and I have no paper trail. I only have the HUD form from the last refinance. Before they changed the rules on me, I didn't need to know.
Worse, the money that I put into the rental properties would have been a business expense from an interest perspective, but I didn't bother to write a loan to myself because it was already deductible as a home loan.
So how TF do you untangle that mess into a clean story that a bureaucrat who might possibly have a below average IQ will understand? It seems like an undue burden for the government to expect 2003 me to anticipate tax reform that doesn't become law until 2018 and start saving home improvement receipts to explain the increases in loan balance.
