Senate OKs new tax credit closing deadline
The Senate has amended a bill to give homebuyers who were under contract on a home purchase by
April 30 an additional three months to close the deal and claim the federal homebuyer tax
credit.
Extending the deadline for closing from June 30 to Sept. 30 would allow lenders more time to
clear a backlog of 180,000 homebuyers nationwide, said amendment sponsor Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
The amendment to HR 4213<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.04213:>, the "American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010" -- which primarily extends unemployment insurance benefits -- was approved in a 60-37 vote <http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cf
m.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00191> Wednesday. The vote was mostly along party lines, with
only four Republicans in favor and one Democrat opposed.
"While I am disappointed that more Republicans did not support this common-sense measure to strengthen the economy and reduce the deficit, I am committed to ensuring that more Nevadans and Americans can become homeowners and that this amendment becomes law," Reid said in a statement <http://reid.senate.gov/newsroom/pr_061610_homebuyersextensionpassage.cfm>.
The House passed an earlier version of the bill in December, and the Senate approved its own
version in March. The Senate is currently working on resolving differences between the two
bills.
The National Association of Realtors supports the amendment, saying Realtors have reported that
as many as one-third of qualified applicants have been told by lenders that their loans will not
close before June 30 because of the sheer volume of loan applications in the pipeline.
The amendment does not extend the deadline for homebuyers to qualify for the tax credit, NAR
said in urging lawmakers to approve it, but simply extends the deadline for closing transactions
already in contract.
"Since these applications were already in the pipeline and figured into the program's cost, the
extension of the closing deadline should not incur any further government costs," NAR President
Vicki Cox Golder said in a statement<http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2010/06/extension_
senate>.
There has been some speculation that some homebuyers will attempt to submit fraudulent claims
for the tax credit by backdating documents showing they were under contract by April 30, and
that extending the deadline for closing would expose the government to more fraudulent claims.
* Backers of amendment cite backlog of 180K homebuyers By Inman News, Wednesday, June 16, 2010.
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