Deductible Home Mortgage Interest Worksheet

[KrisD15]

You must first delete any 1098 Forms you already entered. 

The screen you are looking for does not come up when you edit, only the first time the 1098 is entered. 

[atmaas95]

Thank you.  With that being said, I have completely deleted both 1098, property tax details, and every other detail that would indicate I owned property.  I started over with the 1098s and the question never came up.  I am about to completely delete everything for Tax Year 19 and start over.

I have used TT since 1998 and have been very happy with it.  I hope the developers can fix this error.

[pugpapa75]

Just to add, I've deleted all the entries and reentered them and even started a new return with the exact same results.

[Sedonuts]

 I tried to delete and re-enter. However, I did not pay points on the older loan. The option to say, "This loan was paid off" only shows on the second loan where I paid points. Since I didn't pay points on the older loan, the option never shows.

[squirrels17]

@KrisD15 @BarbaraW22 

As @Sedonuts notes, I was able to bring up the option that asks "Was this loan paid off?" only after selecting the option that states that I paid points for my loan (I didn't pay any points). I followed all the steps outlined above, including deleting all my 1098's (multiple times now), adding my first loan of 2019 first, selecting "original loan" for the that loan and "refinance" for the next two, but that's the only way I'm able to bring up that option.

However, even if the "Was this loan paid off?" option is selected, my loans are still added together on my California 540/540NR Deductible Home Mortgage Interest Worksheet, although I noticed that the "Months loan outstanding line" is now corrected so that the total months now adds up to 12.

[chanelhurley]

Even going through all the steps, and the appropriate question not populating, ( I also changed to "forms" mode and manually entered the paid off date) I'm still showing my value doubled. This fix doesn't work, and it needs to be addressed asap. 

[squirrels17]

Tried calling TurboTax to report the issue. First representative said he would submit a ticket, then promptly closed the case entirely... Called back, next representative tried to tell me I needed to upgrade to the Premier edition.. after much explaining/repeating, I was able to request (again) that IT look into this issue. Will provide update here when/if I hear back.

[squirrels17]

Alright, finally got an answer on this directly from TurboTax after being on the phone for over an hour. I was instructed to delete the first two 1098 forms and leave the last one (from the lender I had on 12/31/19). He stated that it is the loan balance as of 12/31/19 that is relevant to the mortgage limit (seemed a little odd to me since others have stated that it's the balance as of 1/1/19 that matters, but the balances on both dates are nearly identical for me).

I then added all of the interest and property taxes from all three 1098 forms and entered the respective totals in the appropriate boxes. He said that if you enter each 1098 separately, the system will automatically treat each one as a brand new mortgage. Strange that it never said anywhere in the help sections to do that (you'd think this would be a common enough situation that would warrant written instructions), but all of the numbers and calculations are now correct on my final tax forms.

[pugpapa75]

Thanks for the update.  This seems to me like a “work-around” by the good folks at turbo tax.  I’d really like to see them address and correctly (handling multiple 1098s).

[kristinglass]

I think, perhaps, the discrepancy is between the online versions versus the downloaded versions.  I'm not seeing "let's get the details" and your screen shot looks different than what I am seeing in the downloaded version.  I'm having the same problems as the others. 

I don't like the idea of a work around that involves documents that are being sent to the IRS.  I think Turbo Tax needs to fix this ASAP.  

@BarbaraW22 

[DMarkM1]

Here is another way to go.  Delete all forms 1098 and enter the oldest form1098 first and work up to the present. Enter all data just as listed on the forms 1098 you have.  If box 2 is blank on your form, enter a zero, since you do not know what the number is.  

Once you have entered all form 1098s and select "Done", TurboTax will subsequently ask you if you exceed the mortgage limits or not.

"Do any of these situations apply to you?"

• Mortgages that were taken out on or before December 15, 2017 and they total more than $1 million ($500,000 if Married Filing Separately).
• Mortgages that were taken out after December 15, 2017 and they total more than $750,000 ($375,000 if Married Filing Separately).

If you do not exceed the limits, inspite of what the worksheet calculations are, then you select "No" for this question and your mortgage interest deduction will not be limited. 

If you really do exceed the limits then answer "Yes",  and you will need to manually calculate the mortgage interest deduction using table 1 on page 12 in publication 936 and enter the amount in the box provided.  The worksheets in either case are not filed; they are for calculations and records only.   

[pugpapa75]

I tried that path as well and even if I select no to that question, I am flagged during the error check that I exceed the limit.

This is becoming extremely frustrating and the lack of any type of response from turbo tax is not acceptable.  I raised this issue a couple of weeks ago along with others and nothing.  I’ve done my taxes with turbo tax since 2004, but I’m seriously considering moving to another product.

[squirrels17]

@DMarkM1 that only works for the federal forms. For California, if you have multiple 1098's, it will automatically reduce your deductible mortgage interest without first asking whether you exceed the limit. Apparently, the only option if you leave multiple 1098's entered is to manually adjust the total home acquisition debt, since TT will incorrectly add all refinanced/transferred mortgages together.

I agree that TT still needs to fix this so that I can enter each 1098 as written instead of adding them all together and doing the math myself. 

[mjtaxtime]

I'm having a similar issue with multiple forms, just without CA being the State. I had an original loan in 2018 which was refinanced in 2019 and immediately transferred to another lender. I therefore have 3 1098's but the questions that are asked don't really make sense. This seems like a very common occurrence and the QA should be a lot clearer as to the right selection to be made. After reading through these posts, I'm still unsure of what the right thing to do is...and adding them all into one 1098 doesn't seem like the best way to go.

[DianeC958]

You need to add each 1098 separately.

The biggest issue comes when putting information in Box 2.  The information for Box 2 is asking what was the balance on the loan as of 01/01/2019.

For any loan that was started in 2019 the amount for box 2 is $0.  By putting $0 in box 2 then TurboTax will not limit the amount of interest you can deduct on your tax return as long as you are under the $750,000 loan limit.