Double credit for unmarried homebuyers?

Wednesday, Aug. 19
Written 9:30 a.m. EDT

LOOKING FOR A LOOPHOLE: A friend calls and says: "My sister and her girlfriend plan to buy a house. They both would qualify for the first-time homebuyer tax credit. Someone told them that, because they're unmarried, they each can take the maximum $8,000 tax credit. Is that true?"

I sort of wish it were true, just to see the reaction among people who oppose gay marriage. But, based on my reading of IRS documentation, I'm sure that the maximum tax credit is $8,000 for all the homeowners combined. It doesn't make a difference whether the owners are a married couple, an unmarried couple, or siblings. The max tax credit is $8,000, whether one owner takes it or the owners split it among themselves.

If there is any uncertainty, it's because the IRS didn't update a question-and-answer page when Congress increased the maximum tax credit from $7,500 to $8,000.

Here's the IRS's page of basic information about the tax credit. Here's the IRS's PDF file with details about how to allocate the tax credit between unmarried taxpayers. That's the one that wasn't updated when the maximum credit was increased to $8,000 for homes bought in 2009.