Madeline Stiles

While on www.Bankrate.com, I read an interesting article to share. Service members returning from active duty abroad will be given breaks. Some protections apply to service members whose military obligations affect their ability to repay debts, primarily Reservists and members of the National Guard who are called to active duty. They have to leave their jobs and, in many cases, take pay cuts.

For those service members, there is protection having to do with foreclosures and interest rates. If a service member had a mortgage before entering active duty, a lender can't start foreclosure proceedings until nine months after the service member returns from active duty. Formerly , the protection period was 90 days.

Also, when someone with a mortgage is called up to active duty, the interest rates on previously existing debt are capped at 6 percent. That 6 percent cap extends until one year after the service member returns from active duty.

Thanks to Graham Stiles at www.GrahamStiles.com for sharing this article.

http://thecenturytreereader.com/2008/08/12/armed-forces-members-given-needed-breaks-with-the-new-housing-bill/

When reviewing an article from www.BankRate.com, I noticed information on the Housing Bill that has not received much attention.

Property tax deductions for all homeowners: Under current law, you can deduct your property taxes from federal income tax but only if you itemize deductions on Schedule A. That leaves out people who don't have enough standard deductions to warrant filling out Schedule A. They have to take the standard deduction which means that they can't deduct their property taxes.

The housing rescue bill changes that. For homeowners who pay property taxes, it increases the standard deduction by $500 for single filers and $1,000 for couples filing jointly. This will be a boom to people, such as retirees, who own their house outright, and therefore don't pay any mortgate interest, so they can't itemize.

You can't increase the standard deduction by more than the property tax bill. So, if you're married filing jointly and you pay $800 in property taxes, you get an $800 deduction, not a $1,000 deduction.

Thanks to Graham Stiles at www.GrahamStiles.com for sharing the article.

http://thecenturytreereader.com/2008/08/11/benefits-to-homeowners-from-the-new-housing-bill/