Mortgage Interest Deduction

[rmoriani]

I refinanced my mortgage that had a principal of $215,000 on November 15, 2019 and took a cash-out of $75,000 for a total new mortgage of $290,000.  The single 1098 I have received from my credit union for 2019 has a Box 1 of $12,000 (ALL the interest I paid in 2019), a Box 2 (Outstanding mortgage principal) of $215,000, a Box 3 (Mortgage origination date) of 10/11/2005 (the prior date I refinanced), and a Box 11 (Mortgage Acquisition date) that is blank. I had already paid my November mortgage before closing day and I was told to make NO mortgage payment in December. So my first payment toward the new mortgage was in January 2020. 

   How do I proceed honestly answering the TurboTax Deluxe question "Is this the original loan that you took out to purchase this property?" and its subsequent follow-up questions? Of course I want to claim the entire mortgage interest deduction of $12,000 on my 2019 income taxes but I know there are also the deductibility rules governing my $75,000 cash-out that, so far, has only had a small amount spent on home improvements. 

[maglib]

@rmoriani You don't need to as you made no payments on the new mortgage which is also indicated by the principal shown on the statement to all be the old mortgage. The interest you are reporting paid is all related to original balance. Next year it will have an impact.

Does this make sense?

I hope this was helpful.

[rmoriani]

Thank you for your reply. I assume what you mean by "you don't need to" is that I can take the entire mortgage interest amount as a deduction on my 2019 taxes. However, after I admitted during the TurboTax line of questioning that this is a refinance and that I have pulled cash out from this loan when I refinanced it, TurboTax then asks me the question "Have you used the money exclusively on this home?"  The only two answers I get to choose from are "Yes, I've used this loan only on the home I took it out on" OR "No, I've used some or all of this loan on a different home or on something other than a home."  Choosing the first response gets me my deduction but of course I haven't actually used much of it on the home yet. And choosing the second response instead loses me the deduction. The second is actually the more honest answer because I did use about $16,000 to pay off other debt although I intend to use the $59,000 balance of the cash-out for home improvements in the future. How do I answer "Have you used the money exclusively on this home?"so as not to lie AND get my legitimate 2019 deduction?