Entering nothing in Bx 2 for Form 1098 Mortg Int, a zero deduction is calculated. Is this a bug?

[llcorbin · Accepted solution]

The mortgage company is required to enter in box 2 the amount of the "Outstanding mortgage principal as of 1/1/2018.  If there was such a balance, contact your mortgage company about this.  If you had no balance as of that date, there would likely have been no interest reported

[dpc112]

The Mort Company did not enter anything and as the form is reported to IRS I am hesitant to enter into Turbotax.  Is it an error on their part?

[llcorbin]

It is an error on the part of the mortgage company and would warrant you contacting them. Perhaps they can issue a revised form for you.

[rachelnam]

I am in the same situation. I have two 1098s because my mortgage was transferred to a new lender mid year. The original lender has the correct amount on box 2. The new lender left it blank. I’ve called the new lender multiple times about getting a corrected 1098 which has that amount filled out. They refuse to correct it and told me to just use the amount in box 2 from the original lender when filing my taxes. However that is not what they reported to the IRS so I don’t know what to do. This is very frustrating. I’m itemizing so this matters for the mortgage interest deduction.

[llcorbin]

In your particular case, I believe you can follow the recommendation of the mortgage company and enter the same amount that was on the 1098 from the original mortgage company.  The reason being is that nothing about the mortgage has changed other than the servicer of the mortgage.

[fanfare]

so if you take out a mortgage in July (there's no principle balance on Jan1) you can't deduct the mortgage interest ??