How do I deduct points on 30 year mortgage?

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

In certain cases, the amount of interest that an individual pays up front on their home loan or other form of mortgage is known as 'points' in relation to the mortgage. Since the interest of a mortgage is tax deductible up to a certain amount each year, individuals need to be aware of their points and how they can go about deducting points on their taxes in relation to their mortgage. Since this process of paying interest up front typically lowers the monthly amount of an individual's mortgage payment, it is a popular format for paying of mortgages.

Unfortunately, for many people this process provides a more complicated tax deduction process when the individuals are not sure how to properly perform the deductions. While many people would initially believe that they would need to divide their total number of points by the thirty years, or amount of years for their mortgage which in this case is thirty (30), of the mortgage in order to deduct their points on their taxes, this is not the case and individuals need to make sure that they are aware of the actual practices and processes that need to occur in these instances.

Many individuals choose to perform their taxes and their deductions with the straight-line method, which is one of the available methods to individuals who are filing their taxes. Again, the number would not be divided by the number of years of their mortgage, in this example 30 years, which is the initial instinct of many people who are filing their taxes. Instead, the individual would need to divide the number of points on the loan by the number of individual payments that are going to be made over the entire term of the loan. The individual is then responsible for deducting the number of points for a single year on their taxes, specifically the individualized tax year of focus and interest.

In these instances, the individual would need to divide their points by the number of total years for which the individual would need to pay their mortgage, giving the individual a specific value. This would let the individual know how many points they affect in a single year. Then the number needs to be divided by the number of payments per year in order to determine how many points are affected each month. This is important during beginning or ending years when the individual may not pay an entire year of interest and points on their mortgage.

Amounts and points will change if and when individuals are able to pay off their loan prematurely, or if they should choose to refinance their loan with another company or financial establishment. In these instances, the total number of remaining points would be deducted in that specific year. Some cases are able to include all of the remaining points on the Form 1098, but not all are able to do so. For individuals who are not able to deduct all remaining points from Form 1098, need to be entered on Form 1040. On this specific form, individuals need to create an itemized list for their itemized deductions, to include the points necessary.