Married Filing Separately 1098 form and taxes- NYS

[bschuey]

Just so I understand, if married filing separately and both of us co-own the mortgage and lease, then both of us half to divide the percentage mortgage interest number on the 1098 in half?

Just to be clear, if I am the spouse that received the 1098 and my social is the only one listed on the 1098, despite both of us being on the load, then are we both supposed to split the percentage mortgage interest in half, then enter?

FYI-I already entered the full amount of the percentage mortgage interest because it is my SS# listed on the 1098. Now what? Does my husband not enter the 1098 or enter "0" for percentage mortgage interest?

Also, what about the taxes. We already are losing in NYS because of the tax cap. Do we get to enter the full tax amount for married filing separately OR are we supposed to divide that in half each too?

[ThomasM125]

The correct way to split up the mortgage payments would be for each individual to deduct the portion that they paid. However, if it was paid form joint funds, then you can each deduct half of it. If you deduct the full amount of the mortgage, then your spouse cannot deduct any of it. For the taxes, I think you are asking if you need to combine the state taxes paid by each of you and then divide the total by two to arrive at the tax withheld to enter for each of you. That is not correct in New York since that state is not a community property state. So, you would each enter the amount of state tax deducted from your pay or paid as estimated tax on each of your tax returns.