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2. An aircraft or boat, but only if the tax rate was the same as the general sales tax rate. 3. A home (including a mobile home or prefabricated home) or substan- tial addition to or major renovation of a home, but only if the tax rate was the same as the general sales tax rate and any of the following applies. a. Your state or locality imposes a general sales tax directly on the sale of a home or on the cost of a substantial ad- dition or major renovation. b. You purchased the materials to build a home or substantial addition or to perform a major renovation and paid the sales tax directly. c. Under your state law, your con- tractor is considered your agent in the construction of the home or substantial addition or the performance of a major renovation. The contract must state that the contractor is authorized to act in your name and must follow your direc- tions on construction decisions. In this case, you will be considered to have pur- chased any items subject to a sales tax and to have paid the sales tax directly. Don't include sales taxes paid on items used in your trade or business. If you received a refund of state or local general sales taxes in 2020, see Refund of general sales taxes, earlier. Line 5b State and Local Real Estate Taxes If you are a homeowner who received assistance under a State Housing Finance Agency Hardest Hit Fund program or an Emer- gency Homeowners' Loan program, see Pub. 530 for the amount you can include on line 5b. Enter on line 5b the state and local taxes you paid on real estate you own that wasn't used for business, but only if the taxes are assessed uniformly at a like rate on all real property throughout the community, and the proceeds are used for general community or governmental purposes. Pub. 530 explains the deduc- tions homeowners can take. Don't include the following amounts on line 5b. TIP • Foreign taxes you paid on real es- tate. • Itemized charges for services to specific property or persons (for exam- ple, a $20 monthly charge per house for trash collection, a $5 charge for every 1,000 gallons of water consumed, or a flat charge for mowing a lawn that had grown higher than permitted under a lo- cal ordinance). • Charges for improvements that tend to increase the value of your prop- erty (for example, an assessment to build a new sidewalk). The cost of a property improvement is added to the basis of the property. However, a charge is deductible if it is used only to main- tain an existing public facility in service (for example, a charge to repair an exist- ing sidewalk, and any interest included in that charge). If your mortgage payments include your real estate taxes, you can include only the amount the mortgage company actually paid to the taxing authority in 2020. If you sold your home in 2020, any real estate tax charged to the buyer should be shown on your settlement statement and in box 6 of any Form 1099-S you received. This amount is considered a refund of real estate taxes. See Refunds and rebates, later. Any real estate taxes you paid at closing should be shown on your settlement statement. You must look at your real es- tate tax bill to decide if any nondeductible itemized charg- es, such as those listed earlier, are in- cluded in the bill. If your taxing authori- ty (or lender) doesn't furnish you a copy of your real estate tax bill, ask for it. Prepayment of next year's property taxes. Only taxes paid in 2020 and as- sessed prior to 2021 can be deducted for 2020. State or local law determines whether and when a property tax is as- sessed, which is generally when the tax- payer becomes liable for the property tax imposed. Refunds and rebates. If you received a refund or rebate in 2020 of real estate taxes you paid in 2020, reduce your de- duction by the amount of the refund or rebate. If you received a refund or rebate in 2020 of real estate taxes you paid in an earlier year, don't reduce your deduc- tion by this amount. Instead, you must CAUTION ! include the refund or rebate in income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8, if you deducted the real estate taxes in the earlier year and the deduction reduced your tax. See Recoveries in Pub. 525 for details on how to figure the amount to include in income. Line 5c State and Local Personal Property Taxes Enter on line 5c the state and local per- sonal property taxes you paid, but only if the taxes were based on value alone and were imposed on a yearly basis. Example. You paid a yearly fee for the registration of your car. Part of the fee was based on the car's value and part was based on its weight. You can deduct only the part of the fee that was based on the car's value. Prepayment of next year's property taxes. Only taxes paid in 2020 and as- sessed prior to 2021 can be deducted for 2020. State or local law determines whether and when a property tax is as- sessed, which is generally when the tax- payer becomes liable for the property tax imposed. Line 6 Other Taxes Enter only one total on line 6, but list the type and amount of each tax included. Include on this line income taxes you paid to a foreign country and generation skipping tax (GST) imposed on certain income distributions. You may want to take a credit for the foreign tax instead of a deduction. See the instructions for Schedule 3 (Form 1040), line 1, for details. Don't include taxes you paid to a U.S. possession on this line; instead, include U.S. possession taxes on the appropriate state and local tax line. Don't include federal estate tax on in- come in respect of a decedent on this line; instead, include it on line 16. TIP A-7