If you have not owned a house in the last three years and you are buying a house from January 1 to November 30, 2009 then you are eligible to receive the many benefits of the tax credit. Keep in mind that the credit is only given to individuals or couples who really need it. In order to benefit from the incentives being provided, you must be earning less than $95,000 a year if you are single, or less than $170,000 a year if you are married.
Unlike previous tax credits, this tax incentive is not a loan that you will have to pay for in a couple of years or so. This is literally just cash being given to you by the government. This donation from the government works this way: The government will pay you eight thousand dollars minus how much you will pay for income tax. Thus, if you have to pay 500 dollars worth of income tax, you will be receiving 7,500 dollars from the government.
Also, keep in mind that you can only get 10% of the total amount you spend purchasing your house as a tax incentive, with a maximum of 8,000 dollars. This means that you need to spend at least 80 thousand dollars on your home in order to qualify for the full tax credit of $8000. Should your home cost less then $80,000, you will still receive money from the government, but it will be a lesser amount.
There are other ways in which you can save money on your new home. If you install energy saving appliances such as lights, air conditioning, heating systems, hot water heaters and so on-you can get incentives for the cost of these appliances as well. So, if you want to buy a new home and save the environment at the same time, then you should do so now in order to save yourself money.
Feel free to check out this great resource that provides reliable information on the first time home buyers stimulus.
