This is page 3 of a series on tax deductions (2008)

Refinancing points.

When you buy a house, you can deduct points paid to get your mortgage all at once.

But when you refinance a mortgage, you have to deduct the points over the life of the loan.

You can deduct 1/20th a year if it's a 20 year mortgage.

On the year you pay off the loan if you have sold the house or refinanced you may

get to deduct all so far undeducted points.

Unless you refinance with the same lender,

then, you add points on the latest deal to the points leftover from the previous

refinancing and deduct the expense ratably over the life of the new loan.

Estate tax on inherited income.

This can save you quite a bit of moolah if you inherited an IRA from someone whose estate

was big enough to be subject to the federal estate tax.

You can take an income-tax deduction for the amount of estate tax paid on the IRA balance.

So maybe you inherited a $50,000 IRA, and the $50,000 was included in your benefactor's estate

it added $22,500 to the estate tax bill.

As you withdraw the money from the IRA and pay tax on it,

you also get to deduct a proportional amount of the estate tax paid.

If you withdraw $22,500 in one year, for example,

you get to claim a $11,125 itemized deduction on Schedule A.

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