Grant taxes

[TS2014]

Good afternoon!

 My husband and I bought a house in NC. We have a conventional 30 year mortgage loan but we were eligible and accepted a $7,500 grant to go towards the purchase of our house through Truist bank. How is that going to be taxed?

[VincentL2]

This program is referred to as a  “mortgage grant” because there are no payments to be made, there is no interest charge, and there’s no expectation that you will have to repay ANY of the money you receive for down payment, unless you move out of the property or refinance prior to the dates assigned by your specific program.

So check with the program for further details on specific requirements to avoid any repayment.

[MariaDG1]

Hello TS2014!  Thanks for participating in our event today.  Congratulations on your home purchase! This is an excellent question that applies to many people.  Generally only down payment assistance provided by a non-profit organization is tax free.  Typically down payment grants provided by a bank will be considered taxable income. They may not make this clear, as it is often buried in the small print somewhere. You can check with Truist bank to confirm this is taxable.  In that case, you will receive a 1099-misc from the bank, and  a copy will go the IRS also.  This means you must report this income on your tax return.  This is easy to do in Turbotax.  

Enter the information as follows in the 1099-MISC interview: 

-Enter the 1099-Misc under  Other Common Income  from the Income and Deductions page 

-For the description, enter "Down payment grant"  

-Be sure to select that it  does not  involve work like your main job, and that it  did  not  involve an intent to make money

-The income will be reported on schedule 1 and line 8 of your 1040. It will be taxed at your normal rate for ordinary income, which depends on your tax bracket.

[TS2014]

Thank you so much!