The IRS is checking out records on land transfers in order to catch real estate reporting omissions, reported the Wall Street Journal last week. Calling the effort “low-profile but sweeping,” indicated that as of December 21, 2010, 323 taxpayers had been examined for failing to report gifts of land, while 217 additional individuals were being examined and 250 were being Read full article »
Tag archives for Irs
IRS Checking Out Real Estate Gifts
$8,000 Tax Credit Cost Typical Recipients Twice That
According to home values released by Zillow on Monday of this week, home values have fallen for a 57th straight month. And while this is not good news for anyone, it has hit beneficiaries of the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers particularly hard, as, according to the Wall Street Journal, they “lost twice as much to falling house prices Read full article »
tags: BEREL, Bryan Ellis, Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter, carole vansickle, Draft, first time homebuyer tax credit, home buyer incentive, home prices, Home Values, Homebuyer Tax Credit, House Prices, Housing Market, Housing Recovery, housing recovery 2011, housing tax credit, Inflation, internal revenue service, Irs, Real Estate, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Investing News, Real Estate Investors, real estate investors news, Real Estate News, tax fraud, Wall Street Journal, White House, Zillow, zillow.com
Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction Headed For The Chopping Block?
Recently, several legislators have proposed plans for gaining control of the skyrocketing national deficit that include cutting the mortgage-interest tax deduction. Currently, the IRS considers home mortgage interest a tax-deductible expense, and taxpayers can save money on their taxes by submitting the amount of interest paid on their mortgage as an itemized deduction. Interest is deductible on both main homes Read full article »
category: Mortgage News, Real Estate News
The “New Normal” – Soft Tyranny Brings The Worst Environment For The Real Estate Business: Uncertainty
Thank you for the very vigorous response to part #1 of the "Soft Tyranny" article series. If you missed it, check it out here before reading this conclusion to the 2-part series. As bad as the economic policies of the current administration are for the real estate industry and the business community as a whole, those policies themselves are made far Read full article »
category: Editorial
tags: Anecdotal Evidence, Article Series, Bailout, Business Community, Card Transactions, Conclusion, Confidence, Credit Debit, Creditors, Current Administration, Decisions, Democrat Party, Economic Policies, Estate Business, Financial Ability, Health Insurance, Insurance Changes, Irs, Massive Expansion, Medical Insurance, New Legislation, Real Estate, Slush Fund, Small Real Estate, Something Wrong, Takeovers, Tax Increases, Tyranny, Uncertainty, Vigorous Response
The Politics of Real Estate
Few industries are as profoundly impacted by the political machinations in Washington as the real estate industry. Whether it's old legislation like Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act or Barack Obama's massive mortgage bailouts, the U.S. political machine has a huge impact (usually bad) on the business of real estate.
Ideally, we could ignore politics. But here at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter, we insist on seeing the world with clarity - including the reality of Washington's aggressive involvement in every facet of our business, from mortgage lending to real estate sales license; from loan modification regulations to appraisal requirements... every piece of our business is profoundly impacted by politics. So rather than stick our heads in the sand and ignore reality, readers of the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter choose to be informed and prepared.
Mortgage Industry News
Few things change more rapidly than the mortgage market, and with the increasing dominance of GSE's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the mortgage business, it's more important than ever to keep up. Here are a few recent mortgage news updates:
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Mortgage News
- HAMP Success Tally Slowly Growing
- Western States Working Through Foreclosure Backlog Quicker than Eastern
- Biggest Down Payments in the Country Found in New Jersey
- President Bypasses Congress, Appoints Director of the Consumer Protection Bureau
- Federal Reserve Recommends Expanding GSEs to Turn Housing Market Around
- Mortgage Rates Likely to Remain Low for a While Longer
- Top Former FDIC, Wells Fargo Execs Say Fannie and Freddie Must Go
- FHA Continues to Extend Anti-Flipping Waiver
- More Homeowners Using Delaying Tactics to Slow Down Foreclosures
- Now that It’s Passed: The True Cost of the Payroll Tax Cut
About Bryan Ellis
Bryan Ellis is an Atlanta-based real estate analyst and publisher of the widely read newsletter "The Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter". With over 200,000 subscribers - including real estate investors, agents, brokers, appraisers and other real estate professionals - the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter is among America's largest sources of unbiased coverage of politics and public policy for the real estate industry.
Bryan Ellis serves as editor in chief for the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter and is assisted by an extraordinary staff of writers, researchers and editors who are each real estate experts in their own right and who assure that the news we report is well researched, factual, and highly relevant to today's real estate industry.
Bryan is very happily married and has two wonderful daughters. He makes his home in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. You can contact the team at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter here.