Hi Everyone, new here & have a question.
I'm in CA and we have a Homestead Exemption (System 2) of $20,075 and a wild card of $1,100. We are surrendering our home (another story) and are planning to take the $20,075 "in lieu of the homestead" & wild card to exempt our SUV, p/u and a damaged boat. The SUV is worth $20k and has a loan remaining of $8,900 (we are reaffirming). The p/u is worth $3k (if that) and our boat (damaged last year) is worth $7k (not running).
My question is...after the exemptions, can we used what's left over to keep some of our 2007 tax return? Here's the breakdown:
$20,000 (value of SUV)
-$8,900 (loan remaining)
$11,100 (equity after loan)
-$3,300 (CA vehicle exemption)
$7,800 (take "in lieu of homestead")
$7,000 (boat value)
+$3,000 (p/u value)
$10,000 (take "in lieu of homestead")
$10,000
+$7,800 (amount from above)
$17,800 (Total "in lieu of homestead" exemption)
$21,825 (CA homestead & wild card exemption)
-$17,800 (Grand total exempted)
$4,025 (left for exempting an 2007 taxes)
Does this look correct? Our lawyer wasn't concerned with the 2007 tax return (last year we received $6k). This year we are not expecting that much (only one income and changed deductions to 5). We might even owe, who knows???

