Property taxes

[saysay82]

What is the name of your state? Michigan.
I'm a new home owner, I bought my house on September 2004.
When we closed the deal it was showing on the HUD documents that the ex-owner paid $1600 in taxes up to this date (he had an escrot account) and we paid the difference, about 1300 which was included in the morgage. Also the $1600 were included to our morgage, when I asked the loan officer about that he said that we had repayed the previous owner for the taxes he already paid. OK, when we filed the income taxes our refund was only about $1100. I know that whatever property taxes we paid were refundable.
I'd like to know what happened here. Was it the loan officer's mistake? Or, the tax person did a mistake when he filed my taxes in the end of the year?

[anteater]

Originally Posted by saysay82

OK, when we filed the income taxes our refund was only about $1100. I know that whatever property taxes we paid were refundable.

Property taxes are not refundable. They are deductible if you itemize your deductions. Check Schedule A of your return to see how much in property tax was listed as a deduction.

[Snipes5]

Note that if you brought your papers to the Tax person but did not bring your HUD Final Closing statement, it may not have been apparent to your tax person that you paid property taxes back to the seller.

Further, I believe that property taxes paid in behalf of the seller are actually added to the basis of the house ("capitalized"), and are not deductible.

Snipes