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Comment by robertAngst | Hacker News Reader

>The tax law limits or eliminates dozens of itemized deductions, including for SALT, mortgage interest, home office expenses and fund management fees.

Wait, they got rid of mortgage interest?

Since the internet told me to see a CPA, I did. And I was not happy at how limited his knowledge base was. I corrected him a few times during our meeting. We had a conversation about Mortgage Interest and this never came up.

Isnt the point of the certification to be the expert? I'm just a math guy that can read.

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For primary residencies, you can now only deduct interest on up to $750,000 in debt (i.e. your mortgage principle) rather than the $1,000,000 if you had bought your home before 2018.

In short, most people won't be affected, unless you own a mansion or a home in an overpriced market such as SF or NYC.

Keep in mind that the standard deduction also doubled, so depending on your own situation, you may not even need to itemize your deductions, such as your mortgage interest.

Thank you! (also makes the article less valid IMO for being sensationalist)

This seems backwards to me. Wouldn't a better option be to deduct interest on any house worth less than 750k or some lower number as that would help the middle class much more while also encouraging smaller home purchases and affordability?

I think that's what the parent is saying - "up to 750k".

Correct. The $750k number is the cap on the debt for which you can deduct paid interest from. So, if you borrow 1 million dollars to buy a house, you only get to deduct 3/4 of the interest now, instead of the full amount. Interest on smaller loans continues to be fully deductible.

Doubling the standard deduction may have a perverse inventive against borrowing less (or simply buying cheaper homes) as, depending on your situation, it may be better than itemizing.

I think it's debatable whether the mortgage interest deduction really plays heavily into a noticeable amount of people's decision to buy or not; unless you are having a hard time deciding to buy or rent, there are a lot of other, larger factors.

Finally, I believe that doubling the standard deduction and eliminating a number of other deductions is a small, first step towards creating a simpler tax code- such a code wouldn't be as useful for social engineering (help middle class buy more small homes) but there are plenty of benefits, too.

It certainly factors into what people are willing to pay each month, which is the actual thing they think about when they are figuring out how big a mortgage they can handle.

Primary and _secondary_ residences, up to a combined total of $750,000

> Isnt the point of the certification to be the expert? I'm just a math guy that can read.

Enrolled Agents (EA) are very good on average as tax accountants. Not perfect, but if talk to them mid-reporting period and they'll have heard of new rules.

Beyond that, what you need to know about "professionals":

1) The job of a CPA is to collect their fees.

2) The job of a lawyer is to collect their fees.

3) "Professionals" rank larger entities ahead of individuals in fees and advancement.

For anyone else curious, the reference to the home office deduction being eliminated is only for employees. The home office deduction remains unchanged for self-employed folks.

$1M --> $500k mortgage principal for the deduction was the change.

Also, get a personal referral for a CPA.

$500k was one of the drafts; the final amount is $750k.

It was a personal referral :O

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