Question

Miller owns a personal residence with a fair market value of $380,900 and an outstanding first mortgage of $304,720, which was used entirely to acquire the residence. This year, Miller gets a home equity loan of $19,045 to purchase a new fishing boat. How much of this mortgage debt is treated as qualified residence indebtedness

Answer 1

$304,720

Step-by-step explanation:

According to the IRS, qualified principal residence indebtedness may include:

1) Debt incurred in order to purchase, build or improve your house or main residence, and the debt is secured by the house or principal residence (mortgage).

Or

2) Any house debt in (1) that is refinanced in order to improve, build or purchase something of your house or principal residence, e.g. you refinance your mortgage in order to build a swimming pool. The loan balance cannot exceed the original mortgage.

A fishing boat is not considered a home improvement, so the equity loan is not considered qualified residence indebtedness.