Luke recently moved from a condominium to a cooperative. With a cooperative, his share of mortgage interest and real estate taxes will be ______.

In a cooperative (co-op), when residents purchase shares in the cooperative corporation, they are typically entitled to a pro-rated share of the mortgage interest and real estate taxes paid by the co-op. This is significant because the IRS allows co-op shareholders to deduct their allocated share of these expenses on their personal income tax returns.

This deductibility reflects the treatment of co-op expenses as if they were incurred directly by the shareholder. While the actual payment of mortgage interest and tax liabilities may occur at the cooperative level, shareholders receive an IRS Form 1098 from the co-op showing their proportionate share, allowing them to easily claim these deductions when filing their taxes.

In essence, the tax benefits associated with homeownership—like deducting mortgage interest and property taxes—extend to cooperative shareholders, thereby enabling them to reduce their taxable income, just as homeowners do.