Does having your home paid off effect stipends/per diems?

[dbookhite]

Hello,

I am thinking about paying off the rest of my mortgage on my home.  I'm concerned it might hurt me at tax time if my house is paid off because home expenses justify some tax benefits of stipends and per diems. My guess on it is that I could still justify my tax home and housing expenses because even with the loan paid off there are taxes, insurance, utilities, and various expenses attributable to my home.  I can't find any solid evidence to justify my guess.  The people filing my taxes and my agency may not be knowledgeable on this issue so I hope someone can provide me some good information. 

Thanks!

[NedRN]

No it doesn't hurt you tax home wise. You still have the costs of ownership, just minus the mortgage. So you still incur duplicated costs working away from home so you don't have to declare those stipends as income.

From a money management issue, you will lose the interest tax deduction which is not a big deal if that was the only reason to itemize (now you can do your own income tax too), and you might have lost opportunity costs. For example if your mortgage is really low interest, you might do better investing your savings in mutual funds or income property and so on. Interest rates are now trending up so a low interest loan could be worth saving.