Tax Issues

MBA encourages policymakers to support and enact tax laws that support long-term economic growth, which is the foundation of strong real estate markets. On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), into public law. While many of the TCJA changes impact all businesses alike (regardless of the specific industry), this comprehensive new tax law has numerous provisions that unambiguously affect the real estate finance industry. MBA supported elements of the TCJA that provided both homeowners and renters with more "take-home" pay by lowering overall tax rates and nearly doubling the standard deduction. MBA advocated for its members on many important issues during the tax reform debate. As some of these provisions are set to sunset, MBA will continue to work with lawmakers to ensure that homeowners and renters are not negatively impacted.

Tax Extenders: MBA advocates for Congress to make the mortgage insurance (MI) premium deductibility provision permanent. Servicers that are required to issue IRS Form 1098 to taxpayers need to know whether or not to report MI on the form. Congress has extended the provision retroactively many times in the past, which creates serious and costly operational issues for servicers. MBA will continue to work with the IRS to figure out a work-around that will help avoid or drastically reduce the operational issues that servicers are faced with due to the continued (and especially retroactive) short-term extensions of the provision.