Mortgage Interest

[jltisue]

There is "0" balance on the Home Equity Loan.  I am trying to claim the interest on this loan; however I get the following prompt "Outstanding mortgage principal must have a value."  I receive a 1098 Form Mortgage Interest Statement.   What am I to do?    Thank you.   

[ToddL99]

Enter "$1" as the "Outstanding mortgage principal". 

This will not have any effect on your tax calculation and will not generate an error in either TurboTax or with the IRS, From an economic perspective, it is accurate - you owed virtually nothing on this mortgage at the end of 2020. 

There are many places in TurboTax where you must make a non-zero entry, primarily to let the program know that you answered the question and that the answer makes some sense.  

In this case, entering "$1" tells the program that you didn't forget to answer the question and that you had at least some amount of a mortgage loan balance to justify claiming an interest deduction. 

[jltisue]

Thank you.  I will enter $1         

I have another question, on my state return, which is CA. it is giving me an Employee Home Office Worksheet.  It wants me to enter part of home used for business, total area of home.  But..........I don't have a Home Office.  I claimed business expenses but not for home office.

[ReneeM7122]

If you are not claiming a home office deduction, go back to your Schedule C and check to make sure you didn't indicate that you've got a home office.  

Just to be sure you don't qualify, here is a TurboTax article about the home office.  

You can also approach the form this way:

You can remove the home office deductions in TurboTax by removing the forms/worksheets related to it in the Delete A Form section of TurboTax.

• Login to your TurboTax online account
• Click Take me to my return or Pick up where I left off
• Click Tax Tools (located in the left side bar), then Click Tools
• Click Delete a Form in the Tools Center pop up box
• Click Delete next to the home office worksheets related to home office deductions in the Review Forms List Screen (you may have to scroll down)