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TaxQ1
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If I take a personal loan to build a vacation home outside the US, will I get any tax breaks on the personal loan since I'm using to fund my vacation home?

I already have a mortgage on my primary residence here in US.
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3 Replies

If I take a personal loan to build a vacation home outside the US, will I get any tax breaks on the personal loan since I'm using to fund my vacation home?

The same rules apply to a second home abroad as to one in the United States so interest paid on a loan secured by that home is deductible if you itemize. However property tax is not. 

If I take a personal loan to build a vacation home outside the US, will I get any tax breaks on the personal loan since I'm using to fund my vacation home?

@TaxQ1 - no, the interest is not deductible because the proceeds are from a personal loan and not a loan secured by the property.  

If I take a personal loan to build a vacation home outside the US, will I get any tax breaks on the personal loan since I'm using to fund my vacation home?


@NCperson wrote:

@TaxQ1 - no, the interest is not deductible because the proceeds are from a personal loan and not a loan secured by the property.  


To be considered a "mortgage" for the mortgage interest deduction, the loan has to be secured by a lien on the property.  It doesn't have to be a bank loan, it could be from a friend or from the former owner, but it has to be registered with the proper authorities where the home is located as a lien.  

 

Also, it used to be that foreign property tax was an allowable schedule A deduction along with property taxes on your US home, but that deduction has been removed by the tax reform law in 2017.  

 

If you use the home in business (as a rental part of the year, for example) you can deduct a portion of your property taxes and loan interest as a business expense, even if the loan is not a lien.  However, the loan proceeds have to be traceable to the property.  For example, if you used a credit card, and then used the same card for other personal items, you would lose the ability to trace a specific portion of the interest payments to the purchase of the home. 

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