Historic Tax Credit for Homeowners

[bhooley]

I didn't know if there was an appropriate topic for this already... I have a question for everyone here and am hoping someone has an ingenious idea or has experienced the same thing and may have some advice for me.

First a little background:

We live on Benefit St. and have to replace our gutters. This sounds easy enough, right? Well they are old wooden box gutters and we have to follow the rules of the historical society. This means we had to go through all the red tape to get a contractor and get the repairs approved. It also means it's costing our building five times what standard gutters would cost.

There is a historical tax credit for repairs of this kind but the caveat is that it's based on Income tax and both my wife and I work in Mass. so we don't pay RI income tax. This means we're losing out on $1200 which is very significant. The only loophole we can think of is to have one of us do a part time gig around the holidays at a local store for a week so we have a paycheck which pays taxes to RI.

Does anyone know of another way around this? Or if this would even work? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Pseudo_Work]

I didn't know if there was an appropriate topic for this already... I have a question for everyone here and am hoping someone has an ingenious idea or has experienced the same thing and may have some advice for me.

First a little background:

We live on Benefit St. and have to replace our gutters. This sounds easy enough, right? Well they are old wooden box gutters and we have to follow the rules of the historical society. This means we had to go through all the red tape to get a contractor and get the repairs approved. It also means it's costing our building five times what standard gutters would cost.

There is a historical tax credit for repairs of this kind but the caveat is that it's based on Income tax and both my wife and I work in Mass. so we don't pay RI income tax. This means we're losing out on $1200 which is very significant. The only loophole we can think of is to have one of us do a part time gig around the holidays at a local store for a week so we have a paycheck which pays taxes to RI.

Does anyone know of another way around this? Or if this would even work? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dan]

Wow. $1200 for gutters...

That would have to be one hell of a gig for you to pay out a total of $1200 in state income tax in a week.

Can't you just fix the existing wood (historic / authentic) gutters? You might not get the tax credit but at least you won't get taken for a ride with whoever the government appointed to fix your house. I did a whole roof job on my garage over the summer for about $1000.

Just be careful dealing with contractors in this state.

[Dan]

I always thought the tax credits came out of property tax, or at least that there was the option of having them come out of property tax. It would certainly make a lot more sense (although this is Rhode Island, so I suppose that isn't saying much) than crediting peoples' income taxes, because the state is so small that there are always bound to be out-of-state workers or landlords.

[Cotuit]

But you don't pay income tax to RI? I did when I was working in NYC and changed my official residence to RI after signing a lease here. I had overlapping leases for a month and changed my address so I wouldn't have to pay NYC income tax anymore.

[Jerry2]

Does anyone know of another way around this? Or if this would even work? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[brick]

But you don't pay income tax to RI? I did when I was working in NYC and changed my official residence to RI after signing a lease here. I had overlapping leases for a month and changed my address so I wouldn't have to pay NYC income tax anymore.

[c.a.haynes]

I didn't know if there was an appropriate topic for this already... I have a question for everyone here and am hoping someone has an ingenious idea or has experienced the same thing and may have some advice for me.

First a little background:

We live on Benefit St. and have to replace our gutters. This sounds easy enough, right? Well they are old wooden box gutters and we have to follow the rules of the historical society. This means we had to go through all the red tape to get a contractor and get the repairs approved. It also means it's costing our building five times what standard gutters would cost.

There is a historical tax credit for repairs of this kind but the caveat is that it's based on Income tax and both my wife and I work in Mass. so we don't pay RI income tax. This means we're losing out on $1200 which is very significant. The only loophole we can think of is to have one of us do a part time gig around the holidays at a local store for a week so we have a paycheck which pays taxes to RI.

Does anyone know of another way around this? Or if this would even work? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[yossarian]

I didn't know if there was an appropriate topic for this already... I have a question for everyone here and am hoping someone has an ingenious idea or has experienced the same thing and may have some advice for me.

First a little background:

We live on Benefit St. and have to replace our gutters. This sounds easy enough, right? Well they are old wooden box gutters and we have to follow the rules of the historical society. This means we had to go through all the red tape to get a contractor and get the repairs approved. It also means it's costing our building five times what standard gutters would cost.

There is a historical tax credit for repairs of this kind but the caveat is that it's based on Income tax and both my wife and I work in Mass. so we don't pay RI income tax. This means we're losing out on $1200 which is very significant. The only loophole we can think of is to have one of us do a part time gig around the holidays at a local store for a week so we have a paycheck which pays taxes to RI.

Does anyone know of another way around this? Or if this would even work? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[quente]

I think Brick is right about the taxes - in this case, you get nothing.

However, it's worth a call to the historic preservation folks at the City and State to see if there are any local, state or federal programs that you can tap into. Here's the contact info below:

Providence Historic District Commission

Jason Martin

351-4300

PHDC site

RI Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission

Ginger Hesse or Roberta Randall

222-2678

RIHPHC site

Yes. Buy the materials yourself after carefully finding out what materials are up to code. After that, drive to the Price Rite parking lot in Olneyville or the Big Top flea market on Saturday or Sunday and ask the crowd in Spanish...

[eltron]

Two things:

you have to spend more than $2000 dollars to even qualify for the credit.

AND

you cannot sell the credit like the commercial credit. It has to be taken by the owner of the house.

good luck!

[Dan]

RIHPHC site

Ignoring the larger issue of hiring illegal immigrants, all I can say is you get what you pay for . . .

[TheAnk]

Just do whatever you want and pay a $20 fine after.. Conley Wharf Style..

[c.a.haynes]

Two things:

you have to spend more than $2000 dollars to even qualify for the credit.

AND

you cannot sell the credit like the commercial credit. It has to be taken by the owner of the house.

good luck!