No More State Tax on Forgiven Debt

Enacted into law yesterday, Distressed homeowners no longer have to pay California state income tax on debt forgiven in a short sale, foreclosure, or loan modification. 这么做，short sale更有持无恐了。

Facts about Home Buyer Credit

First-time home buyer tax credit upto $8000 or 10% of purchase price is available for contracts by April 30, 2010 (close by June 30, 2010). Income limits are $125k for singles, $225k for couples.

A new $6500 long-time home buyer credit is available for home buyers who have owned a principal home for 5 years and now is upgrading. Contract before April 30, 2010. Income limits are the same as above.

To claim the credit, a copy of Form HUD-1, settlement statement are required. For new construction, if settlement statement is not available, a certificate of occupancy is required. For long-time home buyers, in addition to above documents, mortgage statement/property tax documents/home insurance etc showing 5 years consecutive residence are required.

To be considered as first-time buyer, you either never owned a home as principle residence or didnot have a principle residence during the last 3 years.

FIRPTA

1980年之前，外国公司/人在美国投资房地产出售获利之后，因为人不在美国，也不报任何所得税(Capital Gain or Business income)，美国国家税务局(IRS)也没有办法追缴，所以，就制定了对于外国人在美国进行房地产投资方面的税务规定，英文就是Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA) 。

FIRPTA主要内容: 对于符合IRS定义的"外国人"和"外国公司"在出售房地产是不管是否盈利均预扣成交价的10%(可能从2007年有更加详细的百分比)作为美国联邦所得税款,这笔钱是由过户公司扣留然后交给美国国家税务局IRS.在年底,卖主要如实申报必要的税收,IRS根据报税结果,再退还多余的部分,如果年终,卖主没有报税,IRS就扣留这笔款.
如果你没有赚钱,IRS就不会让你交任何税,这要看你的报税的情况决定.

IRS定义的外国人是:
一年中在美国居住的时间没有超过183天的外国人.所以,一个非美国公民,非美国永久居民,如果是在长期居住的,诸如工作签证(H1)的外国公民 ,也不是IRS所定义的外国人.

如果属于IRS定义中的外国人，自住的房子：业主是自住(没有住过半年) ，但出售时价格不超过30万美元，就与正常的交易一样，过户公司就不会预扣10%的成交价。但是有一个条件，就是买主买了之后也是自住的。

所以，这个豁免有三个条件，必须同时满足：买主，卖主均是自住(不是投资物业)，成交价不超过30万美元。

如果不属于IRS豁免的范围，那么在过户时就要被过户公司预扣10%的成交价。如果有获利，获利部分要交纳所得税，税率至少21%左右(因为税法可能有变化，只能给出大概范围)。如何是超过一年的投资的话，税率就会低一些，估计是15%左右。



比如加州的外国人(外州人)房地产投资的税法就很值得注意。加州的法律要求，凡不是加州的居民，这当然包括外国人，在卖房地产时要被预扣3.33%成交价来纳税，当然多余的本分会退回给卖主。

关于tax credit

一直没有写，主要是太多人写了。太多人来问，还是写一个Summary:

Federal Tax Credit:

$8,000

One time credit

New or used

Primary residence only, closed 1/1 to 12/1

Income limits single up to $75,000 and married couple up to $150,000

California State Tax Credit:

$10,000 ($3,333 per year for 3 years)

New home purchase only

Primary residence only closed 3/1/09 to 3/1/10

No income limits

如果你的房子降了很多。。。

你可以去county要求一个新的估价：

填一个表格（Application for Changed Assessment, form #BOE-305-AH (S1) Rev. 6 (2-06)）
It is a single page application that asks you to provide the filed values on the tax roll and asks you for your opinion of current value for land and structures. This form's purpose is to file for an assessment appeal. 填好寄给county后，你会收到一个post card 上面会给你一个application number.

The County Tax Assessor's office has been inundated with appeal applications.

但是要注意的是，一旦你要求county来重新估价你的房子，（re-assess）， 你就自动的从一个Prop 13的保护下出来了。 这个Prop 13的意思是fixes your property taxes (with minimal increases) to the value of our home at the time of purchase. 这样一来，以后每2年county都会来重新估价。 That's fine as long as the value of our homes continues to decline; 但是如果房子上涨的话那可能就不那么合算了。你可能反而会多交税了。 但是从现在的房市看，可能还是重新估价一下比较好。

自己再多做做研究。 看看怎么会合适你。

http://arcc.co.san-diego.ca.us/docs/calrev.pdf