First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Status: Where’s The Money?
Bob - Christian PF
Last year Linda and I purchase our first house. It turned out to be a great time for us to buy, home prices were pretty low, interest rates were low (and of course they both still are), and we were eligible for the $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit. Because of the nature of my business, I owed quite a bit of money to the IRS when I filed my taxes earlier this year. As a result our $8000 from the government just worked as a wash against the amount we owed.
From what I am hearing, many of the people who amended a tax return to get the homebuyer credit are having a difficult time receiving their check from the IRS. I got an email from a concerned reader who has been waiting 5 months for his refund – with little reason to believe that he will receive it any time soon.
Here is what he writes about the situation…
At first we were told 6-8 weeks to receive the refund after receiving the amended return. Along with the return, form 540, a copy of my current closing statement, and a copy of my last home I sold (which by the way had to be at least 3 years prior to buying this new one,to qualify for the FIRST time home buyers credit). The IRS is now generating standard form letters every 30 days telling me that if I don’t receive any info from them in the next 30 days to call them. Kind of a catch 22,don’t ya think.
After searching and reading several forums, some people are waiting for returns up to 12-15 months! I have to think maybe some of these could be people who might have amended their own returns? It also seems that a lot of people sunk all they had to get in the house, thinking in a few weeks they would soon be $8000.00 richer? Many testimonies saying they are about to go broke if they don’t get this money soon.
The only information I can gather to justify this is the vast amount of fraud from the initial start of the program. My CPA tells me that their was one occasion that a 2 year old was awarded a refund! Needless to say they are doing some due diligence to actually prove everyone is qualified. I didn’t go into this having to rely on the refund. I was planning on using part for an emergency fund (baby step 1) pay some debt(#2) and try your cool idea of have a months income in the checking account (love it). Just getting a little tired of this runaround by the IRS.
Are you having trouble getting your homebuyer refund from the IRS? Do you have any suggestions for those who are?
christianpf.com/first-time-homebuyer-tax-credit-status/
Oct. 8, 2010