Mortgage Interest not being deducted

[edewerth]

TT won't let me claim my Mortgage Interest this year, I have a 170K Mortgage originated in 2004 with 100K left on it and about 4600 in Interest this year but it asks me one question, is my Loan Secure by your property, which Box 7 on my 1098 is blank.  Then it does this:

Has something changed about Mortgage Interest deductions that I am not aware of or is this a bug and how do I work around it?  I check the Limit Mortgage Interest workaround on the worksheet but it is NO already.

Any other solutions?

[rjs · Accepted solution]

You cannot deduct mortgage interest unless the mortgage is secured by the property. That was always true. It is not a change. Most mortgages are secured by the property that the mortgage is on. Unless there is something unusual about your mortgage, it is secured by the property and you should answer Yes.

The fact that box 7 on the 1098 is not checked does not mean that the mortgage is not secured by the property. If box 7 is blank, box 8 should have the address of the property that the mortgage is secured by.

[edewerth]

Thanks for the response, I just don't ever remember having to answer that question in the past so I was a bit confused.  Maybe I have, it's been a long year.