Mortgage Insurance Premiums
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Per IRS Publication 936 Home Mortgage Interest Deduction, page 8:

Mortgage Insurance Premiums
You can treat amounts you paid during 2015 for qualified mortgage insurance as home mortgage interest. The insurance must be in connection with home acquisition debt, and the insurance contract must have been issued after 2006.

Qualified mortgage insurance. Qualified mortgage insurance is mortgage insurance provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Housing Administration, or the Rural Housing Service, and private mortgage insurance (as defined in section 2 of the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998 as in effect on December 20, 2006).

Mortgage insurance provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs is commonly known as a funding fee. If provided by the Rural Housing Service, it is commonly known as a guarantee fee. The funding fee and guarantee fee can either be included in the amount of the loan or paid in full at the time of closing. These fees can be deducted fully in 2015 if the mortgage insurance contract was issued in 2015. Contact the mortgage insurance issuer to determine the deductible amount if it is not reported in box 4 of Form 1098.

Special rules for prepaid mortgage insurance. Generally, if you paid premiums for qualified mortgage insurance that are properly allocable to periods after the close of the tax year, such premiums are treated as paid in the period to which they are allocated. You must allocate the premiums over the shorter of the stated term of the mortgage or 84 months, beginning with the month the insurance was obtained. No deduction is allowed for the unamortized balance if the mortgage is satisfied before its term. This paragraph does not apply to qualified mortgage insurance provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Rural Housing Service.

Limit on deduction. If your adjusted gross income on Form 1040, line 38, is more than $100,000 ($50,000 if your filing status is married filing separately), the amount of your mortgage insurance premiums that are otherwise deductible is reduced and may be eliminated. See Line 13 in the instructions for Schedule A (Form 1040) and complete the Mortgage Insurance Premiums Deduction Worksheet to figure the amount you can deduct. If your adjusted gross income is more than $109,000 ($54,500 if married filing separately), you cannot deduct your mortgage insurance premiums.

Form 1098. The mortgage interest statement you receive should show not only the total interest paid during the year, but also your mortgage insurance premiums paid during the year, which may qualify to be treated as deductible mortgage interest.

To enter your qualifying mortgage insurance premiums in TaxAct®:

  1. From within your TaxAct return (Online or Desktop) click on the Federal tab. On smaller devices, click in the upper left-hand corner, then select Federal.
  2. Click Itemized or Standard Deductions to expand the category, then click Interest expenses
  3. Click Continue or No until you reach the screen titled Itemized Deductions - Qualified Mortgage Insurance Premiums 

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