Where should I enter how much of my refinanced mortgage I took as cash out?

[wwilkinson2693]

Under Deductions & Credits, while entering info my 1098, I selected that the loan was a refinance and that not all of the loan taken out was used to buy, build, remodel, or repair the house (a small portion was used to pay off other debts - the rest all went into buying the house in the refinance). On the next tab, the question asked is "How much of your loan did you use to build, remodel, or repair the property it's secured by?" - it does not state *buy*, build, remodel or repair. Technically, then, this amount would be 0 - unless it's meant to also include the funds put towards buying the house. 

Is this box meant to include any funds from the refinance that went towards the purchase of the house? If not, how can it account for the portion of the loan that was not used for this purpose?

[Anonymous_]

I am not certain this is the screen, but did you ever see it?

[wwilkinson2693]

Hi,

Thanks for the info, but my screen looks different (see below) - mine says "build, remodel, or repair" instead of "buy, improve, or build". Should it state "buy"? Should I be including the dollar amount used to buy the home in this box? e.g if when I refinanced my loan was for $100k, and I used $5k of it to pay off other debts and the rest went towards buying the house, should the number in the box on my screen then be $95k? It doesn't make sense to me to have it be $0.

[ThomasM125 · Accepted solution]

The program is basically asking for the amount of the loan that was used for purposes associated with the house. In other words, if you borrowed $100,000 and used $5,000 of it to pay off credit cards or for other purposes not related to the house, and the rest was used to pay off the mortgage you are refinancing,  then you would enter $95,000 for the amount used to purchase, remodel or repair the property.

[WhateverMan_]

Shouldn't this be fixed in the software to include "buy". This is very misleading!