Questions of the "interests you paid"

[chiaowei yu]

Recently I've been checking my 2019 tax return, and was hoping to find any way I can do my taxes better.

And here's what I'm still confused about. I got the 1098 form from the bank which I've paid the interests for my home mortgage for $6,640 by end of 2019. I've double checked on the app that everything was filled correctly, and was hoping to see this amount would contribute to my itemized deduction. 

However, I was not able to see the amount reflected on the schedule A - line 8a, 8a shows 0 for my home mortgage interest and points reported to you on form 1098, which lower my itemized deduction for the federal tax. It might be a dumb question, but I've been looking for the answers, and still couldn't figure out why.

Please advise, thank you in advance 🙂

[rjs · Accepted solution]

You must have entered something that indicated that the mortgage interest is not deductible, or you answered a question incorrectly.

Go through the mortgage interest questions again. Does TurboTax ask whether the loan is secured by a property of yours? If it asked that question, did you answer Yes? If the mortgage loan is not secured by a property that you own, the interest is not deductible. Most mortgage loans are secured. If box 7 on the Form 1098 is checked, or there is an address in box 8, the loan is secured.

When TurboTax asked whether this is the original loan that you used to buy the home, did you answer Yes? If it's not the original loan that you used to buy the home, post the details about the loan.

[chiaowei yu]

Hello there,

thank you so much for your quick and detailed response, I've double checked the questions.

So I did answer YES to the questions for

1.  Whether the loan is secured by a property of yours &

2. If the mortgage loan is not secured by a property that you own

but i missed the check box for the if box 7 on the form 1098 is checked? 

I just wanted to make sure if this is the reason of why I miss the deduction for mortgage interests. 

Thanks again, it is good to catch this now instead of after years 🙂