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Maaser on Mortgage Principal – Periodically or Upon Sale of

Question:

Topic:

When does Maaser need to be calculated and paid on the portion of a mortgage payment that pays down principal?

Supporting Info:

When refinancing a mortgage and pulling out some money in the process one does not have to pay Maaser on that money since it is technically a loan that will be paid back to the bank over the course of the mortgage.

However, when making a payment on a mortgage the principal part of the payment, as opposed to the interest, is income as you are paying off the loan, and therefore subject to Maaser.
Question:
In the case of a Rental Property where the money to pay the mortgage is coming from Rental Income that has not been maasered yet, when does one have to calculate how much principle was paid down and pay the maaser? Periodically or upon sale of the asset?
(i.e. By using Rental Income that has not been maasered yet to pay for the mortgage payments somehow gives the Rental Income a status of earned money and thereby triggering maaser to be paid on the principal part of the payment?)

 

Answer:

Hello,

My understanding of your question is that the rental income is from the rent of the property for which the mortgage was taken. The rental money would be considered part of the profit, which is going back into the pay for itself. That being the case, you would take off maaser for the rental income would be taken when the profit for the building is realized. Either when the mortgage is finished, and the rental income is going to you. Or when you sell the property and realize a gain. For example, you bought the property for $100k, paid off $50k with the rental money, and resold the property for $150k. You realized $100k in profit, so you would then give $10k to maaser.

If, however the rental money is coming from a different property, then it is considered profit, and maaser would be taken from it now. No different than wages or interest payments that the bank gives you, which are not related to the mortgage and it’s payments.

Best wishes

 

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