Beginning principal and Ending mortgage principal for HELOC

[chengat]

In the Review portion of TurboTax Premier, the program presented two errors that I need to fix.

I need to enter "Beginning Principal" and "Ending mortgage principal".

In my situation I have a home equity line of credit (HELOC) that was initially created in 2017 for $192K.

But as of Jan 1, 2018, the balance on this HELOC was zero.

Then in May, 2018, we borrowed $30K against this HELOC, and paid this off by July 2018.

Given this information what is the correct number to enter for "Beginning principal" and "Ending mortgage principal"?

[KrisD15]

Are you doing your 2019 tax year return? 

"Then in May, 2018, we borrowed $30K against this HELOC, and paid this off by July 2018."

May 2018? July 2018? 

Is the 1098 for 2019? 

[NCperson]

in your case, the beginning number is $30k and the ending number is $0k.

what TT is trying to do is determine whether you exceeded the $750,000 mortgage limit. 

what did you do with the money that was borrowed for those few months?  if the money wasn't used to improve your home, then the related  interest isn't deductible in any event.  wouldn't even go on the return.

[chengat]

Sorry, I meant 2019, not 2018.

[chengat]

the money was not used to improve home, and that was how i answered the question in TT.

however, the program still makes me jump through hoops to enter this addition information...

[NCperson]

since the money wasn't used to improve your home, I wouldn't enter anything into TT related to this HELOC

it just won't make a difference.