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Tax Credit Rant...

Many of you know that my wife and I have our condo on the market and will be purchasing a new home soon (hopefullly). The condo is in my name and I've lived in it about 6 years. My wife has lived here about 2 years. We've known all along that we wouldn't be eligible for the first-time homebuyer credit ($8000) because both buyers must be first-time buyers. However, we assumed that we'd have no problem with eligibility for the "long term owner" credit ($6500). Today, I went to the IRS's website to learn more about the credit and it turns out that is not the case...

Apparenty, in order to get either credit, you both have to be in the exact same situation involving the exact same house or you're shit outta luck. If you're married and one of you owned for the required amount of time but the other did not, you're disqualified. If you're married and you both owned for the required amount of time but it was two different homes, you're disqualified. If you're married and both have never owned, you qualify. If you're unmarried and both have never owned, you qualify. If you're unmarried and both have owned the same home, you qualify.

In other words, this tax credit does absolutely NOTHING for newlyweds unless you've both been living home with Mommy and Daddy all these years or rented. If either of you had the good sense to buy a home rather than dumping money down the toilet paying rent, you get nothing. Thanks for doing the right thing. Thanks for playing, try again. Even more silly, it enables unmarried couples to buy a home together.

Pardon me, but doesn't that sound like the absolute opposite demographic that the tax was probably intended to assist? Isn't it young families trying to buy their first home together that you want in these homes? I suppose it works for the first-time buyer credit but it doesn't work very well for the "long-time owner" credit. All it really covers in that scenario are unmarried couples or couples who have been together and owned a home over 5 years. What's more, since we're not the ones receiving the tax credit, we're the ones funding it (well, us and the rich folks who don't qualify either way).

It's times like these when I look at our government and shake my head. The intent was good, but the implementation and follow-through stopped way too short...

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