$7,500 Fisrt-Time Home Buyer Credit

[Booger]

Good morning, everybody. I had 2-3 clients qualifying in 2008 for the initial $7,500 FTHB credit.

I seem to remember reading on the IRS website that these people can file an amended return and bump

up the credit $500, which would also eliminate the need to repay the $7,500 starting on the 2010 1040.

Does anybody know if this is correct?

Thanks for your responses.

Booger

[Gail in Virginia]

Sorry, Booger, they just missed the timing. The new law, with the $8000 credit and no repayment only applies to homes purchased in 2009 or early 2010. Unless they purchased their home in early 2009 and chose to apply for the credit on their 2008 return before the law changed, they are out of luck.

[jainen]

>>they are out of luck<<

I'm feeling kind of whiney today, so you can take me even less seriously than usual. But I don't think it helps our clients to express a pejorative position about the 2008 credit. It was an astoundingly fine, unprecedented tax break. Thousands of dollars payable immediately, in what is often (in my opinion inaccurately) characterized as a loan. Well, a loan without any interest cost, amortized far beyond the use of the money, and forgiven entirely if the investment should fail. Didn't the 2008 buyers get the property they wanted when they wanted it at the price they wanted? Why should anyone feel bad that somebody else got a different deal on a different property under different legal and economic conditions?

[JohnH]

I agree with jainen, although I'd still like to see the 2008 law changed just for the benefit of a couple of my clients.