What's ending mortgage interest

[MichaelL1]

The program asks for mortgage balance, is that what you are referring to?

[Lisa995]

Ive seen people saying that the program is asking for the ending balance as of 12/31/18, but that's not included on a 1098.

[Lisa995]

@TurboTaxMichaelL1
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/4526127-on-the-home-mortgage-interest-worksheet-when-asking-amount...>

Maybe you can look into this?

[Texas Roger]

I just went through the mortgage interest entry screens and it did not ask for the ending balance on 12/31/2018.

[Lisa995]

@pk maybe you can help shed some light here, since you saw the same thing.

[angelhallel]

so the outstanding mortgage principal and ending mortgage principal is different? If so, is it calculated from info on 1098? Turbo tax asked for this for my federal before allowing me to complete....

[Texas Roger]

It should be on a statement you receive from your lender but not on the 1098.

[arthur5343]

my houses were paid off before 2018.

[chuckjonaz]

If you need a copy of our 1098 you should ask for it.  It has the two balances you asked for.

[chuckjonaz]

If you need a copy of our 1098 you should ask for it.  It has the two balances you asked for.

[pbmeyer1]

I have entered both beginning and ending mortgage balance but it is not registering it for 2018

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

Your 1098 gives the beginning mortgage balance for 2018.  Turbotax also asks for the ending balance.  This is not on your 1098, you will need to get it from your mortgage statement or lender's web site.  It should be less than the beginning balance.

This is needed because, if your beginning OR ending balance is more than $750,000, your deduction may be limited, and a special calculation is needed.

One problem is that the program does not seem to ask this during the 1098 interview, at least for some customers, so it only comes up during the error check.  Another problem is that the program doesn't tell you where to get the number or why it is needed.  (We are pointing this out to the moderators.)

If your beginning and ending mortgage balance are both under $750,000, then it is probably OK to estimate your ending balance as a few thousand dollars less than the beginning balance (but it really isn't hard to find the ending balance from your lender).

[sehook]

My beginning balance for 2018 on my 1098 is $0. I didn't get the loan until September 2018. The 1098 is asking as of 1/1/2018. SO my ending balance is not going to be less than the beginning balance on the the 1098. This seems like it would be pretty common. The problem I am having is that my mortgage interest is on a construction loan - the amount I borrowed vs the ending mortgage balance are WAY off. This implies I paid a lot of the loan off when in fact that isn't remotely what is going on. The ending balance is going to go up with each draw the construction company makes until we ultimately close on the house and then owe the full amount we borrowed. I am only paying interest on a very little bit right now in comparison to what the total borrowed will be. I am not really sure how I am supposed to answer these questions then.

[chugh]

I own my home as a joint tenant with a 50% stake. With that being said I'm assuming that I should only enter half of the beginning and ending mortgage balance for 2018? I noticed that if I enter half of the beginning balance and the entire ending balance it significantly decreases my federal refund. This would be a very easy mistake to make as there is no mention of listing a portion of the ending balance if you're a co-owner of a property. Any insight is appreciated. BTW - I'm using TurboTax Premier online version.