RV loans are tax deductible in the same way a home mortgage is: if your RV has sleeping, cooking, and toilet facilities, the loan is secured by the RV itself, and you itemize deductions on Schedule A, the interest you pay qualifies for the home mortgage interest deduction. For 2026, that deduction covers interest on up to $750,000 of combined qualified residence debt.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction
When an RV Counts as a Home
The IRS defines a “home” for mortgage interest purposes as any property with sleeping, cooking, and toilet facilities.2Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 505, Interest Expense Motorhomes, travel trailers, fifth wheels, and camper vans all fit, provided they have a permanent or convertible bed, built-in cooking equipment, and a toilet. A pop-up camper with no built-in toilet does not.
You can treat the RV as either your main home (where you live most of the time) or a second home. The deduction is capped at two residences total: your main home plus one second home you choose for that tax year.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction If you already own a house and a vacation condo, financing an RV gives you a third property, and only two can produce deductible interest in any given year.
If the RV is your second home and you don’t rent it out, there is no minimum number of days you have to use it. It can sit in storage all year and the interest still qualifies.2Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 505, Interest Expense
The Loan Must Be Secured by the RV
The deduction only applies to “acquisition indebtedness” — debt used to buy the RV and secured by the RV itself, meaning the lender holds a lien on the title.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 163 – Interest Financing the purchase with an unsecured personal loan or a credit card produces nondeductible personal interest, even if the RV itself would qualify as a home.
Using a home equity loan or line of credit on your house to buy the RV also fails the test. Home equity interest is deductible only when the borrowed money is used to buy, build, or substantially improve the home securing the loan.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction Spending those proceeds on a separate RV makes the interest nondeductible.
The $750,000 Debt Cap
For loans taken out after December 15, 2017, you can deduct interest on up to $750,000 of combined acquisition debt across all qualified residences ($375,000 if married filing separately).1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction The cap is a combined total. Owe $600,000 on your primary residence and take out a $200,000 RV loan, and $50,000 of that combined balance sits above the cap. Only the interest attributable to the first $750,000 is deductible.
Loans taken out on or before December 15, 2017, keep the older limit of $1 million ($500,000 for married filing separately).1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction If your primary mortgage predates that cutoff but your RV loan came later, the older mortgage keeps its higher limit while the newer RV loan falls under the $750,000 cap. IRS Publication 936 has a worksheet for combined old-and-new debt calculations.
You Have to Itemize
RV loan interest can only be claimed on Schedule A, which means itemizing instead of taking the standard deduction.4Internal Revenue Service. About Schedule A (Form 1040), Itemized Deductions Itemizing pays off only when your total eligible deductions — mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable gifts, and the rest — exceed the standard deduction for your filing status. For 2026:5Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
- Single: $16,100
- Married filing jointly: $32,200
- Head of household: $24,150
- Married filing separately: $16,100
A filer with a small primary mortgage and modest state taxes may find the standard deduction hard to beat, in which case the RV interest produces no actual tax benefit. Run the numbers both ways before assuming the deduction will help.
Points, Form 1098, and Records
Points, sometimes called loan origination or discount points, are treated as prepaid interest. If the RV is your main home, points can generally be deducted in full the year you pay them, provided the loan was used to buy or build the home, you paid enough of your own funds at closing, and the points were customary in your area.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction If the RV is your second home, points must be spread evenly over the life of the loan. Over a 15-year loan, that’s one-fifteenth of the total each year.
Lenders who collect at least $600 in mortgage interest from you during the year must send Form 1098 reporting the total.6Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1098 Some smaller RV lenders and credit unions don’t issue it. You can still claim the deduction: report the interest on Schedule A, line 8b, and include the lender’s name, address, and taxpayer identification number.7Internal Revenue Service. Other Deduction Questions Keep loan statements and payment records for at least three years after filing.
Sales Tax on the Purchase
The sales tax you paid when buying the RV can also be deductible if you itemize. On Schedule A you pick either state and local income taxes or state and local sales taxes, whichever gives you the bigger deduction.8Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 503, Deductible Taxes Living in a no-income-tax state, or buying a large RV in a year when your income tax was low, can tip the choice toward sales tax.
The combined deduction for all state and local taxes — sales or income, plus property taxes — is capped at $40,000 for 2026 ($20,000 married filing separately). The cap phases down once modified adjusted gross income exceeds $505,000 ($252,500 married filing separately) but cannot fall below $10,000.8Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 503, Deductible Taxes If your property and income taxes already approach the cap, the RV sales tax adds nothing.
If You Rent the RV Out
Renting your RV changes the analysis. Rent it out for fewer than 15 days a year and you don’t report the rental income at all, and the mortgage interest deduction continues on Schedule A as usual.9Internal Revenue Service. Publication 527, Residential Rental Property
Rent it out for 15 days or more and all rental income is reportable. To keep the RV classified as a residence, your personal use must exceed the greater of 14 days or 10 percent of the days it was rented at a fair price.10Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 415, Renting Residential and Vacation Property Expenses get split between personal and rental use, and the rental portion moves to Schedule E rather than Schedule A.9Internal Revenue Service. Publication 527, Residential Rental Property Fall below the personal-use threshold and the RV becomes rental property, at which point the home mortgage interest rules no longer apply. Keep a log of personal-use and rental days if you rent at all.