Mitt Romney made news today by proposing eliminating some tax deductions that could include the mortgage interest deduction. His opponents will jump all over his comments and claim that Romney is trying to take away the mortgage deduction. But that is not really what he said. Here is what he said in a local TV interview in Colorado:
As an option you could say everybody’s going to get up to a $17,000 deduction. And you could use your charitable deduction, your home mortgage deduction, or others — your health care deduction, and you can fill that bucket, if you will, that $17,000 bucket that way. And higher income people might have a lower number.
So basically Romney wants to give a 20% tax cut across the board but is considering offsetting that cut with a limit to the amount that can be deducted in total from things like charity, mortgage interest, etc. Of course at this point Romney is just floating a tentative idea. But if he manages to win the election in November ideas like this would have a deep impact on the mortgage market if actually implemented.
It is not yet clear what government-backed refinance programs a Romney administration would continue to support. With any luck more details will arise though so we’ll continue to report on mortgage-related news from the campaign trail through the election.
In the meantime, contact us in the form on the right to learn about the existing government-backed mortgage refinance programs and how they can help your mortgage situation.