Yes, you can deduct mortgage interest as well as property tax and maintenance from your investment property in Canada . If you own multiple units and you are the one managing them you should also open a property management company and charge your properties a management fee which is also tax deductible.

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I do not think the developer wants this condo so i don't think he will pay the interest. he probably has a mortgage on it. will i owe his mortgage when i eventually move in? i live in a tax lien state. i would like to live and own this condo as cheaply as possible. i am willing to wait a few years to live in this lovely complex. i rent now.

You are just buying a lien, not a property. You cna not just move in, you have no legal claim to the property itself. The property can not change title until all of the liens are off it.

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Wo days ago, someone made an offer to buy our old condo (hallelujah!!!) and we accepted. just signed the papers today. inspection should be a breeze. settlement is in 6 weeks. on paper we are making a nice profit, but when taking into account the many months the property sat empty, 6% realtors' commission, and the local 1% transfer tax, we are just getting back our 20% down payment and the equity we've built up through mortage payments. i learned a few lessions. first, don't buy a new home until you've sold your old one. second, pick your realtor carefully. and third, if your home fails to get any offers for months, it's priced too high. anyway, as i was glorying in our salvation from our cash-flow problems, a sobering question started nagging me: do we owe tax on the sale of the condo?

i'm not a tax expert, but it usually depends on how long you owed it...if it was your primary residence, and you owned it for more than two years, i dont believe you would owe taxes on the profit from the sale of your home...this is assuming that you live in the US

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One of the units in our condo building is bank owned and a third party purchased it for delinquent taxes and filed a petition for tax deed. the unit owner owes the condo association approx. $7,000 in various assessments. can a condo association redeem the property to protect its interest and then resell it? can it, so to speak, act on behalf of the owner. it is in illinois, if it makes a difference.

The association whould have filed a lein againt the property when it was there was a dliquency. The bank (owner) is now responsible for paying the back payments owned.

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My property taxes were paid through my mortgage... in other words a portion of my mortgage payment was used to pay the taxes on my property. well, my condo is in the process of being foreclosed and i go to register my vehicle this am and they tell me that i owe property tax!!! how can this be?? am i going to have to wait until the property is foreclosed to register my vehicle?? or, is this tax bill going to follow me even after the property is foreclosed?? is there anything else i can do to register my car in the meantime? please help. i am a ct resident.

I think you are very confused.

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I have a primary residence valued at $80,000 and a secondary residence valued at $40,000. the primary residence is my house and the secondary residence is my rental condo. i bought the condo in 2006 for $120,000. i foreclosed on the house on november 10, 2010 and i filed for bankruptcy on november 9, 2010. (my 341 meeting was on december 3, 2010, my debt will be discharged 60 days later). my capital gain is $80,000 from the foreclosure. since i filed chapter 7 bankruptcy 1 day before my house foreclosed, does that mean i owe taxes on my capital gain? i live in arizona and i make roughly $50k / year, if that means anything. should i get a tax lawyer or should the good people at h & r block know what to do?

This is not capital gain, you did not earn any money from the investment. This is money the bank gave you and you kept. You will get a 1099 and you add it is income, it is unearned income. You pay state and federal income taxes on it, not capital gains. You don't need an attorney, you just add it on there when you adjust your gross income for 2010. Your income for the year will be 130k, you pay taxes on that.

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I need to move and would like to buy a condo, but i owe back taxes, can and will the irs take the property?

Your first priority should be to pay IRS since interest and penalty is making the amount multiply. Arrange money from what ever sources you can and pay IRS first. Yes, IRS can take money from your bank and put lien on your house. Also when you owe IRS, it affects your credit rating.

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I own a condo in which i lived in for 3 years prior to moving into a rental home. i got married, had a baby, so a 1 bedroom condo was just much too small. we are now renting a house, not owning it. i have my condo up for sale, but it is vacant. i have no desire to rent it out and the mortgage is low enough where we can afford to just have it sit there. basically when i do sell that property, will i owe a capital gains tax even though it does not produce income? this is the only property i own even though i live in a rental home. thanks

The sale of a residence is subject to capital gains taxation, but you must first determine the amount of gain or losses. Losses associated with a personal residence are not allowed to be deducted on your tax return (i.e. if you sell your home for less than your original purchase price plus various possible adjustments), however any gain is likely to be excluded anyway. Your description indicates that absent a previous use of Sec. 121 - Exclusion of gain in the prior two years, you could exclude from gross income up to $250,000 of gain on the property (both the use and ownership tests are passed). Normally, married couples are allowed a $500,000 exclusion, however your description is somewhat vague on whether or not your husband lived in the condo at any point, and it cannot be said if he has passed the use test as well. Note that for periods after January 1, 2009, gain on the sale of a principal residence allocated to periods of "nonqualified use" is not excluded from gross income. This shouldn't prove to be a problem in that your current scenario was specifically addressed by the Joint Committee on Taxation (which is as authoritative as it gets…additional guidance through Treasury Regulations won’t appear for probably another 5 to 10 years): there is an exception that allows a taxpayer a five-year period in which to sell the principal residence after moving out, without having to count the time as nonqualified use. However, if you convert the property into a second home or rental property, that time is considered nonqualified use.

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I just bought a condo last month and the title company used an high estimate for the real estate taxes. this money was applied to my side of the hud/settlement statement. i was told by my attorney that i would be receiving a refund for the difference. do i need to send this refund to the seller? my attorney says no, but i'm not sure that's the case. who gets this refund? this was money held back for taxes due for the portion of the year that the seller owned the property.

Typically at a closing the seller has paid the real estate taxes beyond the current date. So the seller may, for example, have paid real estate taxes for 7/1/08-12/31/08 of $1000. If you buy the place on 10/1/08 (exactly half way thru the period) you would pay the seller $500 for the real estate taxes 10/1-12/31 (which they already paid). This is easy, no problems way its done. However, it sounds like in your case the real estate taxes were not known and were therefore estimated. This happens alot with foreclosures and stuff, and sometimes even with regular sellers who are a bit sloppy or who may have multiple taxes (like a county, city, and other real estate taxes). So, the closing agent (or lawyer) guessed at what your real estate taxes were and they simply guessed high (they thought you would owe $800 in taxes but when they finally got the bills and reconciled it all you actually only owed $500). This being the case you can just keep the money, you simply overpaid the taxes and the money is yours.

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The value of my condo is nearly 50% less than when i purchased it. my first year payments were based on the property value from when the previous owner had it. once they re-assessed, the 2nd year my taxes tripled! i have been past due for the last 1.5 yrs and know that they should have been adjusted to the more recent value of my condo. the problem is, i read that you cannot have your taxes adjusted unless you are paid current. with the amount that i owe, there is no way i can become current anytime soon, so i just got my most recent bill for the same bloated amount based on my purchase amount. is there any way around getting current so that i can get them lowered based on the value at this time?

Contact your county assessor and ask for a reappraisal. In my California County the assessor has adjusted the tax value of every parcel purchased since 2003. Yours should have done something similar.

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My sister in law told me that having property set up in a living trust prevents the heirs from having to pay estate taxes. and then the property is then transferred directly to the children and does not go through probate. if it went through probate, what happens to it? please assist if you know anything about this. also if more is owed on the house than it is worth - i am a little confused by this - then there is significant $ loss or owed by the heirs. is this true?

Living trusts are excellent vehicles for generating lawyer fees. If you retain power over the assets in the trust, they are still part of your estate. My guess is that your sister-in-law went to one of the many wealth seminars that are taught for the primary purpose of making money for the people running them. If you die when the mortgage balance is higher than the value of the house, the mortgage is handled based on your total estate. The mortgage balance has no affect on the gain or loss. The cost basis becomes the value on your date of death and the sales proceeds when the house is sold determines the gain or loss. If the house is sold immediately after your death, there will most likely be a small loss because of the transaction costs (broker fees, transfer taxes, etc.) The loss will not affect the personal tax returns of the heirs.