Can you deduct interest (primary house) from a home equity loan to buy a rental?

[John Davey]

Id appreciate any help, as ex. if i take out say 100k home equity loan and use 50k each as down payments/cloing costs my understanding is i cant deduct the interest?

However, if i would take 100k home equity on a rental A (ex. 100k) and use 50k each (same as above) for 2 rentals (B & C). I can deduct the interest, but it gets added it B and C vs A?

[Michael Plaks]

Quote from @John Davey:

Id appreciate any help, as ex. if i take out say 100k home equity loan and use 50k each as down payments/cloing costs my understanding is i cant deduct the interest?

However, if i would take 100k home equity on a rental A (ex. 100k) and use 50k each (same as above) for 2 rentals (B & C). I can deduct the interest, but it gets added it B and C vs A?

Interest on a loan used to buy or improve a rental property is ALWAYS deductible against that rental property. The source of the loan does not matter.

So yes, if you borrowed $100k and used $50k to buy B and another $50k to buy C - you deduct half of the interest against B and the other half of the interest against C. 

Same answer whether you borrowed against your residence or against your rental A or against your life insurance or from your family or from any other source.