I bought a house on 11/2018, and received a check from the previous owner which contained 11 months worth of property taxes. I paid my tax bill in January 2019. My question is, do I report the whole

[fcervantes_23]

Years worth of taxes or just Decembers amount?

[Critter]

Only your portion ... the rest goes to the old owners who gave you their portion of the bill to pay on their behalf. 

[fanfare]

In the past only about the top half of home owners benefited from home owner tax breaks.

Now its probably less than 20%. It's pretty hard to itemize now.