If you bought an existing home last year, you may find a tax goodie buried under the blizzard of paperwork. I'm talking about your right to deduct any mortgage points paid by the seller. I know that being able to write off an expense someone else has paid for sounds too good to be true. But it is true, so don't overlook it.

The only catch: you must reduce the tax basis of your new home by the amount of seller-paid points that you deduct. That will mean a bigger profit when you sell, but since you can usually exclude home sale gains up to $250,000 ($500,000 if you are married), the bigger profit probably won't actually result in any extra taxes.

Another little known deduction: If you refinanced the mortgage on your home and paid any points, you have been slowly amortizing the cost of those points over the life of the loan. But say you sold your home in 2002. Many people forget they can deduct the unamortized balance in the year of sale. Use the write-off on Schedule A as "qualified residence interest."

Here's another deduction many people miss simply because they aren't aware of it: If you sold a house last year, take a look at your real-estate closing statement. It probably shows that you prepaid a portion of the property taxes that came due after the date of sale. You can deduct this amount on your return.