Deductible fees related to home ownership are limited to home mortgage interest and certain real estate taxes, which are itemized deductions on Federal Schedule A (Form 1040) Itemized Deductions. As explained below, these deductible fees do not include Homeowners’ Assessment fees you pay to a Homeowner’s Association.

Per IRS Publication 530 Tax Information for Homeowners, on page 3:

Items You Can't Deduct as Real Estate Taxes

The following items aren’t deductible as real estate taxes.

Charges for services. An itemized charge for services to specific property or people isn’t a tax, even if the charge is paid to the taxing authority. You can’t deduct the charge as a real estate tax if it is:

• A unit fee for the delivery of a service (such as a $5 fee charged for every 1,000 gallons of water you use),
• A periodic charge for a residential service (such as a $20 per month or $240 annual fee charged to each homeowner for trash collection), or
• A flat fee charged for a single service provided by your local government (such as a $30 charge for mowing your lawn because it had grown higher than permitted under a local ordinance).

CAUTION! You must look at your real estate tax bill to decide if any nondeductible itemized charges, such as those listed above, are included in the bill. If your taxing authority (or lender) doesn’t furnish you a copy of your real estate tax bill, ask for it. Contact the taxing authority if you need additional information about a specific charge on your real estate tax bill.

Assessments for local benefits. You can’t deduct amounts you pay for local benefits that tend to increase the value of your property. Local benefits include the construction of streets, sidewalks, or water and sewer systems. You must add these amounts to the basis of your property.

You can, however, deduct assessments (or taxes) for local benefits if they are for maintenance, repair, or interest charges related to those benefits. An example is a charge to repair an existing sidewalk and any interest included in that charge.

If only a part of the assessment is for maintenance, repair, or interest charges, you must be able to show the amount of that part to claim the deduction. If you can’t show what part of the assessment is for maintenance, repair, or interest charges, you can’t deduct any of it.

An assessment for a local benefit may be listed as an item in your real estate tax bill. If so, use the rules in this section to find how much of it, if any, you can deduct.

Transfer taxes (or stamp taxes). You can't deduct transfer taxes and similar taxes and charges on the sale of a personal home. If you are the buyer and you pay them, include them in the cost basis of the property. If you are the seller and you pay them, they are expenses of the sale and reduce the amount realized on the sale.

Homeowners' association assessments. You can't deduct these assessments because the homeowners’ association, rather than a state or local government, imposes them.

Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the document at the time it is accessed.