Bill to help homeowners moves forward - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Bill to help homeowners moves forward

The House Ways and Means Committee unveiled a bipartisan military homeownership tax bill Thursday with provisions aimed at helping people buy or sell a home in a down market.

Committee aides said the bill, a collection of several tax-related initiatives for service members and their families, is on a fast track for consideration by the House of Representatives. It could pass the House in two weeks, aides said.

Among the key provisions of the Servicemembers Home Ownership Act of 2009:

• Homeowners Assistance Program payments from the Defense Department, for certain service members forced to sell a home at depressed prices, would be exempt from taxes. The tax status of the payments are one major reason why the Defense Department has not yet made any payments of a benefit that is expected to cover about 10,000 people who bought a home before July 1, 2006, and who are either wounded service members or who are permanently reassigned to a new duty station. About 4,000 people have applied for the help, even though the Pentagon has yet to publish rules for how payments will be made.

• Service members and some federal workers who received an $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit for the purchase of a home before Dec. 1, 2009, would not have to repay the credit if they sell the home after less than three years or stop using it as their primary residence. Military personnel, Foreign Service officers and members of the intelligence community who are forced to sell their homes because of government orders would be exempt from repayment.

• The $8,000 tax credit would be extended beyond Dec. 1 for service members, Foreign Service officers and members of the intelligence community who have been deployed outside the U.S. for 90 days or longer between Jan. 1 of this year and the Dec. 1, 2009, expiration date. The extension is recognition that they may have been unable to purchase a home because of government service. Income limits still would apply, phasing out the credit for single taxpayers with adjusted gross income of $75,000 or more and couples filing joint returns with adjusted gross income of $150,000 or more.

Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chief sponsor of the bill, said in a statement that the measure is intended to ensure that service members are “able to take full advantage of the programs we enact.”

“This bill will improve how certain provisions under the Recovery Act apply to America’s service members, and I hope it will see swift passage in the House and Senate so it can get to the president’s desk as soon as possible,” Rangel said.