my closing statement has $6,127.33 under the impound section for property tax and my 1098 has $7396.67 what amount should I use on my tax return?

[Audrey-n-barrett]

Property tax clarification

[Mike9241]

MAYBE Neither is deductible or needs to to be reported. The IRS regards amounts held in mortgage escrow accounts as being your own money which means nothing has been paid. You get a tax deduction on the year money is taken out to pay taxes offset by any closing credit for taxes reported on the closing statement.

to clarify that $7K on the 1098 may be taxes withdrawn from escrow to pay the taxes due (rather than the year-end escrow balance). In that case, the amount deductible is the $7k reduced, but not below zero, for the credit you received on the closing statement for taxes owing for the period preceding your purchase. Only the credit for the same period being paid may be used as an offset. Any credit for the following year would only offset taxes paid in the following year.   

[ThomasM125]

The Form 1098 is more likely to have the correct amount to deduct for property taxes. The closing statement may report prepaid taxes that may not represent the amount actually applicable to the current year.  You find more in this TurboTax article.