If I refinance my home to a new primary mortgage, is the interest from that loan deductible under the new tax law for 2018 taxes?

[flyhigh01]

I have a home equity line of credit on my primary residence. Interest is deductible for 2017, but under the new tax law, interest from that HELOC is not deductible for 2018 taxes. If I refinance the home with a new primary mortgage and pay off the HELOC, is the interest from that new loan tax deductible for 2018 taxes?

[DianeW · Accepted solution]

Yes, you are correct.  The new legislation wiped out the deduction for home equity debt, including on existing loans. If you refinance your mortgage to include the payoff of the HELOC you can deduct mortgage interest up to a maximum of $750,000 of mortgage debt that was used to purchase or improve the home as an itemized deduction.

[re2boys]

Keep in mind though, that with the near doubling of the standard deduction, many folks may no longer benefit from itemizing deductions in the future.  Each situation is unique.

[rjaffeux]

How about if we ref. out house and add our car payment, credit card and HELOC to it, would we get more back next tax time?

[fanfare]

do you really want to be paying interest on your car and credit card for thirty years ?

[rjaffeux]

That would be true if the amount owed wasn't $1200 on hte bike and we plan on paying 1/2 of that with our taxes this year and half next year. Also we're told our taxes back would be more because we could claim the home loan. So we could prob. pay most of the bike off right away. The Credit cards are being paid min. payment right now so though we've paid our payments and sometimes late we haven't made any head way anyway. int the two years we have had the credit cards...

[fanfare]

you may have been getting advice based on the old rules.
since the standard deduction is now $24,000 for married,  and  your property tax is limited to $10,000, you would need a lot of mortgage interest i.e.$14,000 to exceed that and qualify for an itemized deduction.
If you want to refinance to consolidate, that's fine but it is probably not going to help you  on your tax-return.

[fanfare]

If you want to refinance do it now because the crazy Federal Reserve is going to continue to make it more and more expensive to do that. Then cut up the credit cards.

[pflower50]

I refinanced my home in 2018, so I claimed the interested I paid on my form and It didn't give me any credit for the interest. I used all the proceeds from the finance on my main home. So why am I not getting any credit on my deductions?

[re2boys]

Please start a new question rather than tacking onto an old thread with an answer.  Thank you.