Turbo Tax Home and Business does not allow me to insert 0.00 in Box 2 of 1098. I paid my loan off - there is no balance.

[Golfnut]

Tried inserting zero's - no good.
Tried leaving it blank as someone suggested - no good.

[JulieS]

Box 2 is asking for the outstanding mortgage principal as of 1/1/2019, so you should have a figure on your 1098-INT form for box 2.If your mortgage balance was $0 at the beginning of 2019, you can just delete the 1098 entry. 

[Paul Stabler]

Same thing is happening to me, and Turbotax won't advance to the next wscreen if I either leave it bland or put in 0.  How do I get around this? 

[AmyC]

The current workaround is to put $1 in the box and continue through the return.

Box 2 has different instructions depending on the circumstance. Box 2 is for your balance at the beginning of 2019.

If you took out a new loan during 2019, leave it blank.

If you paid off your loan, insert the amount of your balance on January 1, 2019

[Edited 01/31/20 | 12:15pm PST]

[dmlljl]

what if I have a 1098, box 1 is $0, box 2 is blank, but there's an amount in box 5? how do I enter this? it won't let me leave box 2 blank

[DaveF1006]

Try entering a zero to see if that works.

[dmlljl]

it doesn't allow me to put $0 :(

[ThomasM125]

You can enter "1" and it will not affect your income tax or create a problem with your tax filing.