Growing activity in this market, combined with the sheer complexity of the law, created the need for clear, comprehensive literature on this pressing subject. The first edition of The Federal Income Taxation of Mortgage-Backed Securities was written to meet this need and became a standard reference in this area. The Federal Income Taxation of Mortgage-Backed Securities, Revised Edition updates and expands the original work to take account of numerous, important changes in the law and marketplace over the past five years, including new regulations governing REMICs, taxable mortgage pools and original issue discount, the extension of the REMIC statute to cover interest-only securities, the combination of swaps and other derivative financial instruments with mortgage-backed securities and the securitization of financially distressed mortgages.

The federal income tax laws have a powerful effect on the mortgage-backed securities market. To a surprising degree, tax rules influence the types of securities that can be created, and that investors and sponsors want to buy and sell. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 brought many significant changes to the area. Most importantly, it gave life to a new tax vehicle for issuing mortgage-backed securities known as a real estate mortgage investment conduit, or REMIC.

The REMIC rules have led to the creation of many different types of securities that would have been considered fanciful in 1986. The Act clarified, but unfortunately did not simplify, the federal tax treatment of mortgage-backed securities.

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