My girlfriend's social security number is not on our mortgage interest statement.?

Question

Can we still split the interest? Only my SSN is on the intereset statement. We could easily put it only on my income tax documentation but we prefer to split it. Both names are on the mortgage and we have been splitting the payments. But only my SSN is on the mortage document.

Answer 1

If you and at least one other person (other than your spouse if you file a joint return) were liable for and paid interest on a mortgage that was for your home, and the other person received a Form 1098 showing the interest that was paid during the year, attach a statement to your return explaining this. Show how much of the interest each of you paid, and give the name and address of the person who received the form. Deduct your share of the interest on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 11, and print “See attached” next to the line.

Similarly, if you are the payer of record on a mortgage on which there are other borrowers entitled to a deduction for the interest shown on the Form 1098 you received, deduct only your share of the interest on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 10. You should let each of the other borrowers know what his or her share is.

Publication 936
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p936/ar02.html#d0e1664

Answer 2

Panic not. If both of your names are on the mortgage, you can each claim what you actually paid in interest last year on your individual Schedule As. (See Rob's good answer and nice link on how to do this).

My question is "Why split?" You might be much better off if only one of you paid the mortgage, RE taxes, and donations to charity (the one with the higher income or with high unreimbursed medical or work related expenses) and let the other one claim the standard deduction.

Example:

$7,000 mortgage interest
$3,000 RE taxes
$2,000 (each) state and local taxes paid

Split:
each gets $7,000 of itemized deduction

Don't split:
One gets $12,000 itemized deduction an the other gets $5,150 standard deduction.

Think about it...

Answer 3

You might want to double check and see if splitting the mortage interest would knock the itemized dectuction amounts to below the standard deduction...in which case - it won't do EITHER of you any good. It may me advantageous to have ONE of you report all of it for the most tax benefit (ideally, the one with the most income).

Answer 4

On your schedule A, write the following:
Mortgage interest reported to (Jason's SS#) 15,000
less: amount reported by (g/f SS#) ( 7,500)

this will net you 1/2 the deduction

Your g/f would do the same. she would report her half with a note saying "mortgage interest reported to (your SS#)

the IRS has record of the mortgage interest under your SS#. this will show them clearly that you are splitting it so they could trace the other half to your g/f's tax return

Answer 5

Yes you may split the interest deduction. If you were ever audited you would need to show that each of you were liable for the debt and that you each paid half (if that is the portions of the interest that you are taking)..