Tax Credit To Aid First-Time Homebuyers; Must Be Repaid Over 15 Years

WASHINGTON — September 16 - First-time homebuyers should begin planning now to take advantage of a new tax credit included in the recently enacted Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

Available for a limited time only, the credit:

**Applies to home purchases after April 8, 2008, and before July 1, 2009.
**Reduces a taxpayer’s tax bill or increases his or her refund, dollar for dollar.
**Is fully refundable, meaning that the credit will be paid out to eligible taxpayers, even if they owe no tax or the credit is more than the tax that they owe.

However, the credit operates much like an interest-free loan, because it must be repaid over a 15-year period. So, for example, an eligible taxpayer who buys a home today and properly claims the maximum available credit of $7,500 on his or her 2008 federal income tax return must begin repaying the credit by including one-fifteenth of this amount, or $500, as an additional tax on his or her 2010 return..........

Internal Revenue Service