tax deducting coop maintenance (AMT taxpayer)

The statement that "maint is x% tax-deductible" is a half-truth... since each tax situation is going to be different.

You typically will receive 2 statements from your coop:

1. IRS form 1098 -- the amount of interest you paid, on a per-share basis, toward the underlying building mortgage (if applicable);

2. per-share of real estate taxes paid

It's up to you to figure out if the mortgage interest and real estate taxes are deductible, and if it's even applicable to your tax situation. There have been years where it didn't really matter to me -- because of AMT and generally having a great year. There were years when the extra $10k of writeoffs helped me. You're gonna have to do the math for your own situation.

If ANYONE tells you "you can simply write it off" they have no idea what they are talking about. But you know that.

1. The IRS no longer allows deduction of mortgage interest and real estate taxes as a line item. You must now itemize deductions in order to deduct mortgage interest and real estate taxes.

2. Whether or not you should itemize is based on your standard deduction. For example, if you're single, your 2011 standard deduction is $5,800. So if your total deductions are less than $5,800, it does not pay to itemize. If you're a Head of Household the S.D. = $8,500; Married Filing Jointly S.D = $11,600.

3. Note you can only deduct medical costs if they are greater than 7.5% of your income. Look at the instructions for Schedule A to see which deductions are relevant to your personal circumstances.

www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch20.html
www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sca/index.html

Try the TurboTax TaxCaster. It's a quick way to estimate the impact.
http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/