Q: I heard about making my home mortgage tax deductible. My bank has advised me to lessen my monthly payments by rolling my car loans and my mortgage payments together into a home equity line of credit, which will reduce my monthly payments.

A: Yes, but! Your mortgage can indeed become tax deductible IF you use tax-deductible income to reduce your payments and pay your – say – business expenses from other sources. (Go to centa.com and look at 1,000 pages on the subject.) Clean, clear bookkeeping is vital. But note, you have a mortgage now which is not reported as a debt to your credit bureau. If you roll it into a credit line the whole amount – credit line and mortgage – will be reported to the credit bureau as a debt.