Deductible Home Mortgage Interest Worksheet

[SoPas]

They are not going to fix this.   Had the same issue last year and it is still not fixed.    Either use the workaround which is of questionable validity/legality or go somewhere else.

[zaid8591]

I am running into this same message/error though in my situation I sold a home and bought a home in 2021 so I have both 1098s. But am unable to Efile because it says:" Deductible HOme Mortgage Interest Wks: This form has not been finalized for returns with two or more mortgages and limited mortgage interest. We expect this form to be available after February 17th." I am unaware of what form it is referring to as I only have one active mortgage loan.

[hound562]

Paging all all experts to help us:

@LoganathanB @AliciaP1 @ErnieS0 @RaifH @LenaH @DaveF1006 @VictoriaD75 @DianeW777 @MaryK4 @KrisD15  

Your help with this issue is greatly appreciated. Many of customers are still experiencing this issue that does not have a true resolution. Any insight you can provide us into the fix for this error would be much welcomed. 

[whatakamp2]

Can't wait any longer for TT to get their act together.  I need my refund NOW....not days or weeks from now. I'm in the process of selling my house and buying another one.  Need that money now.  Kicked TT to the curb and filed with HRBlock.  So done with TT. 

[sirdsc]

I have the same issue for almost 3 weeks straight now.  This is a blocking error preventing my refund.  The longer this error is allowed to persist, the more delay we will all see since the IRS is so backlogged.

[zvxr]

I am in the same boat as everyone here. Refinanced and TurboTax gave me the exact same error with the ambiguous "available after Feb. 17" message. The "work around" seems asinine since different values would end up on the return. It's disturbing hearing that folks ran into this issue last year.

So...I dropped TurboTax after over a decade of use, for H&R Block. It wasn't too difficult re-entering everything, and now my taxes are done and I'm not stuck clicking around in TurboTax hoping they get an actual fix in.

[sirdsc]

Since mine was a refinance within the year but the same bank, i combined them per the instrauctions in the link on page 8.  This has removed the error.  I filed.

[rheamonique]

I dropped TT and went with a competitor ultimately. Their radio silence for several days, and over 1 hour on customer support, led to this. I wish it hadn't, as I feel comfortable sticking with one platform. I had filed with them for 9 years straight, and liked their platform more than the others.

Combining the instructions is NOT IRS protocol and I feel so sorry for those who have. You should NOT do this. This is NOT valid advice, and it could get you audited. I'm shocked TT is suggesting it.

[ijustwanttofilemytaxes]

Same problem here. Still says February 17th today. Called support couple of days ago, they said "try on 18th or 19th, it will be fixed". Not fixed. Called support again today, they said "try in a week or so, maybe it'll be fixed". Or maybe in a months or so. Or maybe I just go to some provider who can get their act together. Have been filing with TT for many years, but looks like it's time to move on, TT has turned to garbage. 

[Anonymous]

I transferred all my data to HR Block and filed tonight.  I’ll be requesting a refund from TurboTax and moving my future filings to HR Block.  It was a pain but their application is as easy to use.  I would just move to another platform and forget about these guys.

[ijustwanttofilemytaxes]

Unfortunately turns out HRBlock can't handle my taxes (missing some form for state taxes, sigh). So I'll have to look for other solutions... 

[FixtheHomeMortgageInterestSheet]

SERIOUSLY TWO DAYS Past our February 17th it will be fixed deadline. Then you give us notifications that 

File by February 28 to lock in your low price

Time is running out! File your taxes by February 28 and save up to $30

I WOULD FILE IF YOU GET YOUR STUFF WORKING.

I will give you till Monday, if you can't fix it, I am done with TurboTax, had the same issue last year.

[jack26181]

Here's the workaround I used. Clearly, TurboTax isn't in a hurry to fix this issue for people with multiple 1098s, and even if they do, I've lost confidence that they'll do it properly. So I manipulated its broken system into putting the right answer on my final tax forms. Two caveats: This is not advice. Also, I had already paid, or else I would have used a different service. 

1. Google IRS Publication 936 for 2021, download the PDF, print it out, and fill in the worksheet on page 12 by hand. Inconvenient, yes, but that's where using TurboTax has landed me. Pay particular attention to the instructions on page 13, which show that there are multiple ways to calculate an average mortgage balance for the year, including by taking an average of the monthly balances. That can preserve a lot of the interest deduction for someone who had a mortgage outstanding for just a few months of the year.

2. Now go through the interview process on TurboTax. Combine all of your 1098s into one--add together the interest, real estate taxes, and so on. Use your most recent mortgage for the origination date. For both the starting and ending balances, use line 12 of the worksheet you filled in. That's the average balance of all of your mortgages, already adjusted for the special treatment of older mortgages. This will force TurboTax to calculate that figure as the average, then use it and the $750,000 limit to calculate a multiplier, and apply that multiplier to reduce the interest you paid to the allowable limit. 

This method will put the wrong numbers on TurboTax's worksheet, but worksheets don't get filed to the IRS. The only thing that matters is getting a single number right on 1040 Schedule A, line 8a, which is the allowable mortgage interest deduction. This method put the right number there for me, which I verified by downloading the forms just before filing, and comparing that number with what I had gotten on my Publication 936 worksheet. Basically, I had to feed the wrong answers into TurboTax's broken worksheet and interview system to manipulate it into filing the right answer on my Schedule A.

Again, not advice. I think next year I'll use the IRS's fillable forms online, since I already seem to be doing the heavy lifting, and now I'm wondering what else TurboTax has been missing all these years.  

[jbuddenberg]

Found this interesting. Given this problem I went over to H&R Block and took an hour to enter all my tax info to their web application. With HRB I end up OWING taxes and with TT I get a refund. My taxes aren't that complicated but it's a very big difference. Guess I'll try a third to see who's right. Completely surprised at the difference. Is this normal?

[ml6865]

I also tried HRB but they were limiting my mortgage deduction to about $6k lower than it should be. I did the mortgage deduction worksheet myself, on TaxAct, reviewed TT’s calculation from the broken sheet, and had a review call with TaxAct to confirm I did it appropriately before submitting. TaxAct actually has you enter numbers for the mortgage deduction worksheet and tells you what’s going on, HRB just limits it and tells you nothing…. TaxAct matched TT numbers perfectly and actually lets you submit, I suggest using them.