UFH Webinar Explores Impact of Proposed Reforms to Mortgage Interest Deduction

The United for Homes (UFH) campaign continued its series of monthly webinars for current endorsers with a session on April 12 titled “Deductions, Credits, and Homeownership: The Impact of Modest Reforms to the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID).” The webinar explained the impact of the campaign’s two proposed reforms to the MID: lowering the amount of a mortgage eligible for a tax benefit from $1.1 million to $500,000 and converting the deduction to a tax credit.

Andrew Aurand, VP for research at NLIHC, and Eric Toder, codirector of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC), explained the difference between a deduction and a tax credit, why a tax credit would expand the tax benefits of a mortgage to more homeowners, and the specific impacts of the UFH proposals. Converting the MID to a tax credit would give 15 million additional homeowners a tax break. More middle-income homeowners would benefit from a tax credit than currently benefit from the MID.  According to TPC, just 25% of households reporting incomes between $50,000 and $125,000 on their tax returns benefit from the MID, while 44% would benefit from the tax credit. Sixty-five percent of households with incomes greater than $125,000 benefit from the MID, while 73% would benefit from a tax credit.

View the April 12 webinar at: http://bit.ly/2obkIwX

A detailed report on the impact of the MID reforms is available at: http://tpc.io/2h6Yjim and a summary is available at: http://bit.ly/2p0LYTL

View the previous UFH endorser webinars at: http://www.unitedforhomes.org/webinars/

If you are not a UFH endorser, please join the campaign at http://www.unitedforhomes.org/join-the-movement/.

The next UFH endorser webinar will be Wednesday, May 10 at 2pm.