People are fond of saying there’s no better to way to ruin a friendship than with money, and experts are warning the same can be true of family loans, too. Tough economic times have people looking at unconventional sources for money, and family loans are tempting. Family borrowers and lenders must take into account the possibility of dealing with unexpected problems such as taxable imputed income taxes and gift taxes. There are ways to avoid these missteps, like the lender reporting mortgage interest as income and/or the borrower deducting interest as an itemized deduction, but experts advise these details should be worked out before either party signs anything. For more on this continue reading the following article from TheStreet.
Family loans can be appealing, given the current miserably low interest rates on savings accounts coupled with tight credit conditions for borrowers, but there are serious tax and relationship implications to consider first.
For example, let’s look at a wealthy parent with a child in their late 20s or early 30s. The parent has excess cash earning close to zero in a money market account. Their adult child would like to buy their first home, since they’re more affordable than during the crazy days of the housing bubble. But they are having difficulty getting a mortgage due to stricter lending rules.
A private mortgage might benefit both parties in this circumstance: The parent can earn a higher rate of return, while the child will be able to get mortgage funding at a lower rate than a traditional lender.
Claim up to $26,000 per W2 Employee
- Billions of dollars in funding available
- Funds are available to U.S. Businesses NOW
- This is not a loan. These tax credits do not need to be repaid
The key to making this work is to structure and document the loan properly. Failure to do so may give rise to unintended consequences, such as taxable imputed income taxes and gift taxes. If a borrower makes a zero-percent interest loan to a family member, the IRS deems the lender to have earned interest at the Applicable Federal Interest Rate and forgiven the loan interest. As a result, the imputed interest income is taxed on the lender’s income tax return and the "forgiven interest" is considered a gift and eats into the lender’s $13,000 (as of this year) annual gift tax exclusion. If the forgiven interest is greater than $13,000 a year, it would also eat into the current lender’s Lifetime Gift exclusion of $5 million.
So how does one go about properly structuring and documenting a family loan? A family loan for a mortgage done right should include:
- A promissory or mortgage note that bears a minimum interest rate equal or greater than AFR (the long-term rate is now 2.67%) and spells out its term and payment dates, meaning it must be decided whether payments are to be monthly, quarterly or annually.
- A mortgage or deed of trust properly recorded with correct governmental authority, which makes the mortgage secured and gives the lender the legal right to foreclose.
The income tax implications for a properly documented and recorded mortgage:
- The lender records mortgage interest as income on Schedule B of their return.
- The borrower can deduct mortgage interest expense as an itemized deduction.
Before making a family loan, several other issues must be considered, including whether the borrower is a spendthrift unlikely to pay you back. What is the overall family dynamic? Will you help out other family members in a similar fashion, and if you do not will that create bad blood? You need to tread carefully and consider all of these things before actually making a family loan.
People interested in making a family loan should engage financial and tax professionals to help on the front end. This is not an area to dabble in with forms from the Internet.
This article was republished with permission from TheStreet.
