The IRS is trying to drop a tax deduction for donating your home to SWAT and the fire department for training. When I first read the Yahoo! headline I thought it was going to be about homeowners burning their homes for insurance money. It is interesting but not what I was looking forward to reading.
I need to talk to a friend of mine who is a fire chief to see if home fires have increased in the last few years. I remember him telling me that it can be hard to tell the difference between an accidental fire and purposeful fire. How can you tell which reason an iron was left on or a grease fire was allowed to burn? This would be an easy way for desperate person to try to get rid of a home they owed too much on.
This isn’t a suggestion on how to burn your house down. If you get caught it’s 15 years in prison.
Besides the fire damage to the home, there is usually more damage created by the fire hoses. The home can be almost a total loss depending on where the fire is located in the house when they come to fight it. Double check that your insurance actually covers the replacement costs of your home and/or the mortgage value. You don’t want to be short on that.
