So I've done some more digging here and would love to get the opinion of all of your helpful people. I'm thinking that I might be able to get a larger deduction by using the "Average of first and last balance method". Here's my reasoning. Please try to poke holes in it!
The instructions for the average of the first and last balance method state that you can use that method if "you didn't borrow any new amounts on the mortgage during the year. (This doesn't include borrowing the original mortgage amount)". So based on the parenthetical, I can use this method even though the mortgage originated that same year.
Later the instructions tell you "Enter the balance as of the first day of the year that the mortgage was secured by your qualified home during the year (generally, January 1)". This is phrased quite ambiguously. If you read it with the emphasis on "first day of the year that the mortgage was secured ..." then it would be the first day of 2022, which was January 1st, when the mortgage balance was $0. If you read it with the emphasis on the "first day of the year that the mortgage was secured ...", then it would be the date in May that we secured the mortgage.
Thoughts?
