- Q. How does one calculate tzeddaka (Maaser) on the sale of a house? I'm assuming that some expenses could be deducted such as mortgage and taxes and maintenance but not consumables such as gas and electricity.
A. On question 357 we were asked:
“If a property is purchased & one leases it to pay off a mortgage is the rental money subject to maasser if there is no profit left over after expenses such as taxes, interest & paying off the loan?
What if the mortgage is part of a business transaction (with a heter iske) with another yid? How does the borrower and the lender calculate maasser?”
To what we answered:
“When paying off a mortgage the principal part of the payments, as opposed to the interest, is income as you are paying off the loan, and therefore subject to Maaser.
When borrowing using a Heter Isko, the same applies for the borrower. The lender pays Maaser from the interest (permitted by the Isko agreement) he is collecting. As revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a"
Horav Yaakov Hirschman Shlit’a commented that when giving Teruma and Maaser, farmer does not deduct the cost of the seeds he spent.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit'a.
Important Numbers
