Who can take the mortgage interest deduction (divorced couple)

[squidlady]

This follows from my other question about interest income. This question is more important.

We got divorced last year and he paid some of the mortgage for part of the year. I paid all of the mortgage payments once he left the country.

Now I have our 1098 form showing BOTH our names and BOTH our SSNs.

I do not know if he will be itemizing or not. I am self employed and have always itemized.

My question is - how do we divide the mortgage interest deduction when we do our separate taxes? Even when we both paid the mortgage, I paid for a larger share of it (we worked this out together when we were married - who paid for what and it was fair). Now that we are divorced, I am not sure what to do. I am planning to stay in the house and have been making 100% of the payments for several months and will continue to do so.

So please explain what we do about the mortgage payments on our taxes, now that we are divorced. I had assumed that since I was staying put, I'd get the full deduction since I"ve paid the lion's share of the mortgage last year,  but now I'm thinking that might not be right. Thank you!

[KrisD15 · Accepted solution]

If you were both listed on the deed to the property and also on the mortgage, you could each claim the portion you each paid. 

It could be possible to view the payments as made as a couple and possibly then claimed on the tax return of only one of the Taxpayers, but since you state that you had an agreement and you each were responsible for your own share, you would claim only your share. 

Here is a link that talks a little more about this type of situation. 

[squidlady]

Thank you for the info - the link doesn't apply because we are still both on the deed, but it may help someone else. Thanks again!