Deducting Mortgage Interest on Rental Properties
A colleague I’ll call Andy came up against a curious barrier to deducting mortgage interest on a rental property. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) likes to see a straight line between the mortgage lump sum and the purchase of the property that will generate rental income. Unfortunately, it seems that Andy cannot easily draw a line that would satisfy CRA. Andy owns a small home free and clear. He plans to move to a new larger home soon. He had hoped to rent out his old home to make some rental income. His plan had been to take out a mortgage on the old home and use this money to reduce the size of the mortgage on his new home. A side benefit Andy hoped for was using the interest on the mortgage on the old house once it becomes a rental property as a deduction against the rental income. Unfortunately, CRA won’t allow this. From CRA’s point of view, the borrowed money wouldn’t be used to purchase an investment, but would be used to buy Andy’s new home. The following Q and A on page...




This series of pics should be the next cover of The Journal of Behavioural Finance. Love it!
ReplyDeletePerfect! It kills me to see posts that say "I've had enough -- I'm selling all my stocks" right at the end of one of the worst months in market history.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Preet. This was one of the rare times that I was inspired to do something mildly artistic. It was fun!
ReplyDeletePatrick: I agree. I've seen too many comments like this as well. Even bloggers who say all the right things like "stay the course" often then go on to advise shifting out of riskier assets, etc. Of course, this just means selling some stocks rather than selling all stocks. Even people who should know better seem unable to stop themselves from selling low and buying high.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, picture # 2 is how most people seem to invest.
ReplyDeleteCC: I assume you mean that most people try to invest based on the "Fantasy" picture. Sadly, some end up with the reverse of the "Fantasy" picture where they buy at the top and sell at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteOops. I meant to say the reverse of picture # 2 is how people seem to invest, at least, judging from studies that show actual stock returns are much less than market returns.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. I was going to post earlier in the week, but I couldn't think of anything insightful to say... still haven't.
ReplyDelete