Single mortgage loan being treated as two separate loans
Hello,
I did not take the itemized deduction in the first year (2021) I purchased my home (primary home) since the standard deduction was more beneficial. Instead, I am amortizing the points paid.
I entered the mortgage interest information from Form 1098 (2024) in the "Your Mortgage Interest" screen and selected the option to amortize mortgage points on "Other Mortgage Information" screen. On the next screen, under "Your Points Not Reported on Form 1098," I entered the same mortgage principal balance and origination date as in the "Your Mortgage Interest" screen, selecting "No" for whether this is a 2024 loan on primary home (since it is not a 2024 loan).
However, despite the loan being a single loan, the system is treating my mortgage as two separate loans: 1) loan that I am paying mortgage interest for and 2) loan that I am amortizing points on. The mortgage lender screen is auto-populated (cannot change mortgage lender field) and has 2 mortgage lender information sections:
Mortgage Lender: ABC
Loan balance as of January 1, 2025: $350K
Purchase Date: 09/10/2021
Mortgage Lender: ABC
Loan balance as of January 1, 2025: $350K
Purchase Date: 09/10/2021
Do I change one of the loan balances to $0 or leave both at $350K? Now it seems I have 2 loans with a total $700K loan balance, but in reality, I only have one with $350K balance.
Based on what I enter as loan balance/s ($700K vs $300K), the average balance changes in the "Confirm your average mortgage balance"
Please help. Thank you.