Mortgage balance decreases deduction

[dapperduane]

Married filing jointly. My first 1098 is my home mortgage with balance just over $400,000. I try to add a HELOC with a separate 1098 and when I enter in the balance of the HELOC the deduction from that paid interest of the HELOC goes away as I enter the heloc balance in box 2, though the combined mortgage and heloc is well under 750K total. I do not understand this behavior. 

[zomboo]

Please complete the entry of your 1098s and hitting the 'Done' button in the 'Mortgage Interest Deduction' section. The refund meter may be giving you a false indication of the final deduction. If this is not your issue, reply and let us know.

[dapperduane]

Finishing the section did not change the outcome. To further illustrate my problem... The first 1098 is my primary mortgage, 400k, it calculated the deduction properly. I then entered in the second 1098 for my HELOC, 190k, it calculated the deduction appropriately until I enter the mortgage balance in box 2. I tried different amounts to understand the behavior. I can enter in any value less than or equal to $1000 and the deduction doesn't change. As soon as I enter $1001, the deduction decreases by $3 and continues to decrease by $3 for every dollar over $1000 entered in box 2. As you can guess, the deduction quickly goes away if my HELOC balance is over $1000. 

On another note, I tried combining the two balances and interest paid in a single 1098 and it calculated the deduction as expected. So what is happening when I try to separate my 1098s?? 

[dapperduane]

Do you have another suggestion?

[zomboo]

Start fresh by deleting your mortgage and heloc 1098s and reentering them one at a time. Ignore the refund meter and complete the deduction and credit section. Review the interest deduction worksheets and schedule A to verify the data and interest deduction is correct. if it is wrong, you can try to make corrections on the worksheets. Finally, contact customer service and share your screen with them as you go through the mortgage interest deduction.

[DawnC]

Use Forms mode to see what is occurring on the mortgage interest worksheet.   It sounds like it is being erroneously limited.   How to deal with multiple 1098 forms in TurboTax.    As suggested above, you may want to delete your entries and re-enter them.