vasangce, first there is no co-relation between your salary/ wages/ earnings and the amount of mortgage interest that is deductible for Federal tax purposes. The generally your mortgage interest paid on your main residence and / or a second home is deductible if and when you choose to take itemized deduction. Your itemized deduction itself is phased out as your Adjusted Gross Income goes up over $150 K or thereabouts depending on your filing status. The general assumtion in allowing a deduction to the taxpayor is that the interest income is taxable income to the lender and thus avoids double taxation. However in your case because you are talking about owning property in India, this general principle will not apply because the lender is a foreign entity and may not be subject to these earnings ( even though technically these may be US sourced).
Assuming that you are a resident ( for tax purposes at least ), you should be able to deduct actual interest paid by you that you are liable for andsecured by your main home or a second home. The issue you will run into is that you will need to prove that you have actually incurred these expenses --- your lender being a foreign entity may or may not report this to the IRS and so you may get challanged. My suggestion would be either do not claim these interest payments or if you do , make sure you have records to prove that (a) your were liable for the payment, (b) the property deed shows you as the owner , (c) that the said property is securing the loan and (d) that this is your main home or second home. I suspect , in any case , your return will be challanged.
The US federal tax also follows "slabs" -- please visit www.irs.gov for the values for current year. If you have specific questions on how the tax system works in the USA, please feel free to start a new thread or add to this one
Good Luck
