I was divorced in late 2019 (CA resident). As part of the settlement with my ex, I had to get her equity out of the house, so we did a HELOC and I paid her $258,000. I then refinanced the house with a new loan of $570,000 in my name only, and paid off the HELOC, etc. I'm now trying to file my taxes for 2019 as Head of Household, given my son stayed with me in 2019 (he turned 18 that year and lived with me until September).
When I put my loan/mortgage info into TurboTax, I included the nearly $21,000 in interest from the loan my ex I had originated back in 2008. When TurboTax asks the question "Do any of these situations apply to you?" after all mortgage info is entered, I said "No." When I hit "Continue" the software apparently changes my answer to "Yes" automatically, and then gives me the standard deduction for HofH of $18,350, thereby ignoring my $21K in interest and not itemizing my deductions, and bumping up my federal taxes by another $3,500+!
Any ideas? Are the new limits on deducting mortgage interest being applied to a mortgage that I took out with my wife in 2008, now that I'm single/HofH?
