You would think that the tax law would make deducting home-mortgage interest easy and straightforward.

Perhaps! But you would be wrong.

You need to know the rules to avoid giving the government more money than you have to.

Here are six questions you can answer to see how you stack up against the home-mortgage-interest rules:

When is a home a qualified residence for mortgage interest tax-deduction purposes?

When is debt secured by a qualified residence?

What is acquisition debt?

What is the primary hazard with acquisition debt?

Why is home-equity debt weird?

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