Mortgage interest on paid loans

Where do you enter mortgage interest for home loans paid off in 2020? I cannot enter a 0 for "Outstanding mortgage principal". But we don't owe any more on the loan.  I didn't receive a 1098 this year, apparently since the mortgage interest was less than $600, but did receive a note from the bank with the amount of the mortgage interest paid in 2020.  However, as noted above, if I try to enter this information in the Mortgage Interest section, it requires I enter something above "0" for Outstanding mortgage principal.

 

Thank you for your help.

ToddL99
Expert Alumni

Deductions & credits

Enter "$1" as the Mortgage Loan balance amount. This will not have any effect on your tax calculation and will not generate an error in either TurboTax or with the IRS.

 

From an economic perspective, it is accurate - you owed virtually nothing on this mortgage at the end of 2020. 

 

There are many places in TurboTax where you must make a non-zero entry, primarily to let the program know that you answered the question and that the answer makes some sense.  

  

In this case, entering "$1" tells the program that you didn't forget to answer the question and that you had at least some amount of a mortgage loan balance to justify claiming an interest deduction. 

 

Deductions & credits

Thank you Todd!  that's what I had done...entered $1 but wasn't sure if there was another way.  I appreciate your help.