Congress is aimed at helping you regardless of the fact if you’re a military personnel or a civilian. This help is provided to you so you can make your dream of buying your own home come true. If you area  veteran then you can make most of a VA Home Loan that offers you the lowest mortgage rate and it doesn’t require down payments from you. Besides, you can also qualify for a First-Time Homebuyer Credit. By availing this great opportunity you can get possession of your personal home.

Access your First-Time Homebuyer Credit

Following are the useful tips that will guide you to access your first-time homebuyer credit and your tax credit where it is due.

Buy a Principal Residence

To be eligible for the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, you are required to either buy principal residence or enter into a binding contract for buying a principle house. After entering into a binding contract you are required to close on the home before a particular deadline.

Claim Credit on Previous Year Return

In order to be eligible for the new home purchases in the next year, you will be having the option of claiming the credit on the past one or two year return.

Qualify for Reduced Credit

If you are a long time resident for your same home then you can qualify for a reduced amount of credit. If you have lived in the same principal home for a period of any five consecutive years during the 8 year period that ended on the new home purchase date then you can qualify for the credit.

Maximum Credit Limit

For long time residents of the same house the maximum credit limit is $6,500.

Tax Credit for High Income Applicants

People who are earning higher income each month are now eligible for new homeowner tax credit. It is because income limits has been raised by the law and now even higher income earners can avail this opportunity.

Home Purchase Price Limit

Credit is not provided to homeowners if the home purchase price goes beyond $800,000.

Age of Homebuyer

The age requirement for homebuyer is 18 years on the date of home purchase. For married applicants, either of spouses must be 18 years old in order to qualify.

Dependent’s Eligibility

Dependents are not eligible for claiming tax credit.

Benefits of Tax Credit

All homebuyers who have bought homes in the year 2008, 2009 and 2010 may be eligible to take benefit of the First-Time Homebuyer credit. Following are the additional benefits of the first-time homebuyer credit.

• It is applied only to home that has been used as principal residence by the taxpayer
• It reduces the tax bill of the tax payer or increases the refund
• It is fully refundable that means eligible taxpayers will be refunded the credit even if they don’t owe a tax or the credit is more than the owed tax.