Prior to the tax act, taxpayers who required additional cash for a variety of reasons, including buying our their spouse’s interest in the residence,  would regularly refinance the mortgages on their residence for a larger amount.  The benefit was that the mortgage interest on the refinanced mortgage could be deducted up to a $1,000,000 cap.  

The passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has effected a huge change limiting the mortgage deduction in this scenario, which may have a significant impact on parties going through a divorce.  The new law limits the amount of the mortgage to funds needed to acquire a residence, construct a residence or substantially improve a residence.  So, if you are refinancing for one of these allowable expenses, and stay below the $1,000,000 cap, the interest would still be deductible.   However, in a divorce that is often not the case.

In a divorce, the party retaining the residence will have to refinance the loans related to the residence to remove the other party’s name.  Often, this will be both a mortgage and a home equity line of credit.  Moreover, the party retaining the residence often has to refinance for a larger amount to make a cash payment to the other party to “buy out their interest” in the house.  With the new law, the parties refinancing the marital residence to take cash out to pay off the other spouse will be limited to the principal balance prior to the cash out refinance in terms of the interest that can be deducted.  For example, if the principal mortgage balance is $300,000 and the party retaining the residence is refinancing for $500,000 to pay off the other spouse, they will be limited for purposes of the deduction to the interest on the $300,000.  Interest on the additional $200,000 cannot be deducted.  In addition, there will be no deduction when the mortgage is refinanced to now include the home equity line of credit.  Parties are going to have to give more consideration to the tax consequences and resulting true cost of retaining the residence.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes a substantial change to the allowable amount of mortgage interest which is tax deductible.   For those who are contemplating purchasing expensive homes and taking out a mortgage with a principal balance of more than $750,000, the interest on the amount over $750,000 will not be tax deductible.  For mortgages issued prior to December 15, 2017, the mortgage interest is deductible for principal mortgage amounts of up to $1,000,000.  However, after December 15, 2017, that amount is reduced to principal amounts of up to  $750,000.  This only applies to properties purchased after December 15, 2017.  Absent any extension of this law, the amount reverts to $1,000,000 in 2026. 

Another big change relates to home equity lines of credit on your residence.  In the past, the mortgage and home equity line of credit could be lumped together, and the interest on both deducted up to the maximum allowed loan amount.  That is no longer the case.  It does not matter if the home equity line of credit was taken out before or after the change in tax law.  In general, the interest on home equity lines of credit is no longer deductible.  There are some limited exceptions to this where the funds are used to substantially improve the residence, but even this exception requires very specific requirements to be met.  This tax change could have a large impact on those who intentionally took out a home equity line of credit rather than refinance their mortgage to a larger amount. Without this deduction, taxable income will be higher.