Bookmarx LLC - Tax Express

Deductions and Credits for Homeowners and New Home Buyers – Did You Know? (2/2)

Home ownership can provide a number of tax benefits. To make the most of these tax-saving opportunities, homeowners should familiarize themselves with the IRS rules on which expenses can and cannot be deducted.

In addition to home mortgage interest and mortgage insurance premiums, homeowners may generally deduct state and local property taxes. However, property tax deductions are subject to the general $10,000 deduction limit for state and local taxes. Also, in order to deduct property taxes, you must itemize deductions on your return, rather than taking the standard deduction.

Non-deductible home ownership expenses include utilities, repairs, insurance (other than mortgage insurance), most closing costs, depreciation, homeowners' association fees, and payments on the principal of a mortgage loan. A tax professional can help you determine which of your expenses you may deduct, and how to figure the deduction amounts.

Educator Expense Deduction for 2025 – Did You Know?

For tax year 2025, the maximum amount is $300. Joint return filers who are both educators may deduct up to $300 per spouse.

You may qualify for this deduction if you work as a teacher, counselor, principal or aide for grades K-12 in a public or private school. You generally must work at the school for at least 900 hours during the school year.

Eligible classroom expenses include:
- Books, supplies and materials that you purchase for classroom use
- Classroom equipment, including computers, peripherals and software
- Items such as hand sanitizer

Tuition and fees for professional development courses may also qualify for the Educator Expense Deduction. However, you may get a larger tax benefit by claiming the Lifelong Learning Credit or a different deduction for these costs. A tax professional can help you find the most advantageous way to report all your qualified expenses.

Recognizing Scams: The IRS Does NOT Contact Taxpayers in These Ways

Scammers often claim to represent the IRS in order to steal Americans' identities or money. You can better protect yourself by learning how to distinguish legitimate IRS communications from fraudulent messages or calls. As a starting point, it is important to know that there are some types of messages that the IRS never sends.

With the exception of verification codes for secure online account login, the IRS does not contact people or businesses about tax issues via text or SMS messages. The IRS also does not send messages to taxpayers through social media platforms or chat services.

While the IRS may communicate with a taxpayer via email, the messages will not ask the taxpayer to provide personal or financial information by replying or clicking on a link. All official IRS emails will originate from an address ending in irs.gov. If you are not 100% certain that an email claiming to be from the IRS is legitimate, do not reply and do not click any links in the message. Instead, delete the message and call the IRS directly for more information.

IRS Enhances “Where's My Refund” Tool – Did You Know?

The IRS has added a new feature to the “Where's My Refund?” tool, available online (link below) and in the IRS2Go mobile app. Previously, you could only use the tool to check your refund status for your most recently filed return, and only if that return covered one of the last two tax years. However, the tool can now provide information on refunds from any of the last three tax years (2021, 2022 and 2023).

To use the tool, you will need your filing status, taxpayer ID number (SSN or ITIN) and expected refund amount for that tax year.

IRS Where's My Refund? Tool: https://www.irs.gov/refunds