The tax season is knocking at the door. You should know the tax breaks so that you would be able to receive it’s benefits.  You may get some extra tax breaks if you’ve bought a new home, purchased a car or if you’ve a college student in your family. Have a look at the available tax breaks in 2010:

Homebuyers…
All the first-time homebuyers who’ve bought a home after January 1st, 2009 will be eligible for a tax credit of up to $8,000. The best part is that you won’t have to repay the tax credit if you live in the house for the coming 3 years. You will be able to get this benefit this year even if you close your home purchase by June 30, 2010.

If you are not a first-time buyer, you’ll still be receiving certain benefits. If you are staying in your home for 5 of the last 8 years before you purchased a new house (bought after Nov. 6, 2009), you’ll receive a tax credit of $6,500 for your 2009 taxes.

Homeowners facing problems…
If you’ve faced a short sale and the deficient loan amount was forgiven by the lender, then that amount could be held taxable by the IRS. It would be considered as your income. However, there are certain exemptions in this regard. If your mortgage company forgives up to $2 million in debt on your primary home, you can exclude this from your income. However, you can get this benefit if the sale of the property took place between Jan. 1, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2011.

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Real estate agents are very busy these days as they are trying to finalize deals with clients who want to take advantage of the federal tax credit for first time homebuyers. The tax credit for first time homebuyers will expire on November 30th, 2009. Will this tax credit get extended? – that’s the question everyone in the real estate industry is asking.

The National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders are engaged in campaigns so that the tax credit can get extended. Also, it has been noted that the delegations of home builders as well as realty brokers have begun descending on district offices in order to inform the higher authorities how beneficial it was to introduce the tax credit. Due to this tax credit, a large number of people have been interested in buying property even during recession. Apart from this, there have been positive economic effects on the local businesses. The tax credit had also helped in generating new jobs and providing the local government with additional tax revenue.

Thus, we can hope that some sort of extension would take place regarding the federal tax credit for first time homebuyers. But I don’t think the government would announce the extension of tax credit before November 30th. Also, we should not expect that the government would provide us with a bigger credit, or broaden the concept of tax credit to cover all buyers next year.