Absolutely brilliant suggestion!
I created 2 1098s, one that was purely home acquisition debt and the other purely home equity debt, using the manual numbers (a question later on this), as if there were 2 loans separated in the above manner. Turbotax allocated the entire home acquisition debt on Sch A and none of the home equity debt. Then in the CA tax form, I made sure the interest worksheet reflected the same numbers. CA has a different tax law than federal in that 100k of home equity debt can be included in the home acquisition debt. So it did the numbers automatically and gave me more deductions! So your suggestion works!
Thanks again! I think that concludes this issue. I would hope this rather long thread can be archived for other people's reference, as is is not discussed anywhere else in this detail I could easily find.
