The VA funding fee is a form of mortgage insurance. That's the only way it can be deducted, there is no other tax law provision allowing the fee to be a deduction. The deduction for mortgage insurance has been eliminated. The entire line 13 on schedule A has been eliminated.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sa.pdf">https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sa.pdf</a>
See also page A-8 of the instructions <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sca.pdf">https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sca.pdf</a>
Go back to the internal revenue code,
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/163">https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/163</a>
Section (3)(E)(iv) says the deduction for mortgage insurance expired 12/31/16.
Section (4)(E)(i) and (ii) define "Mortgage insurance"
(E) Qualified mortgage insurance: The term “qualified mortgage insurance” means—
(i) mortgage insurance provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Housing Administration, or the Rural Housing Service, and
(ii) private mortgage insurance (as defined by section 2 of the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998 (12 U.S.C. 4901), as in effect on the date of the enactment of this subparagraph).
Every 2 years Congress passes a 2 year package of tax measures called "extenders" that extend a variety of deductions and tax breaks including some consumer level things like mortgage insurance, and some high level corporation crony things. They only extend the tax breaks 2 years at a time because that way they don't have to count the long term impact against the deficit.
The extenders were not included in the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act. So they all officially expired at the end of 2016. Some in Congress want to revive them, but the bill is stalled and is not being acted on, and at least some congress members don't want to keep passing budget-busting tax breaks 2 years at a time especially at a time when they already had a budget-busting major overhaul.
If the extenders get passed, the IRS will turn them back on, the tax software companies will turn them back on, and things will go back to "normal" until the end of 2018 when they expire again. You can either wait for the extender law to pass (if it ever does), or you can file without the deduction and then amend to claim the deduction if the law is passed.
I don't care if you don't believe me or not. Whether you believe me or not, you can't deduct the VA funding fee with Turbotax for 2017. You can try another software product.
