How to Add Property Tax and Mortgage Interest from Closing Documents to 1098 Form for Tax Filing

Does it matter if the property taxes paid at closing were for periods before I owned the house? My closing statement shows I paid property taxes for the first half of the year, but I didn't buy the house until August.

For property taxes paid at closing that cover periods before you owned the house, those are still generally deductible by you as the buyer. The IRS considers the person who paid the tax to be the one who gets the deduction, regardless of when the tax liability actually accrued. Keep in mind that if you're taking the standard deduction rather than itemizing, these additional deductions won't benefit you. You'll only get value from these additional deduction amounts if your total itemized deductions exceed your standard deduction amount.

How exactly does it work? Do you just upload PDF scans of your documents and it pulls out the numbers automatically? I've got like 50 pages of closing docs and I'm not sure which numbers I need.

Did it catch anything else? I've heard sometimes there are other deductible items in closing costs besides just interest and property tax.

Yes, it's super simple - you just upload scans or photos of your documents, and it automatically extracts all the relevant tax information. It highlights exactly which numbers you need and explains where they should go on your tax forms. It's a huge time-saver when you have those massive closing document packages. It definitely caught other deductions I would have missed. Besides the property tax and mortgage interest, it identified points paid (which count as prepaid interest), certain closing costs that were tax-deductible, and even some moving expenses that were still deductible in my situation. The explainer feature is really helpful - it tells you why each item is or isn't deductible.

How does this actually work? Sounds fishy. Why would the IRS call you back just because some random service asked them to?

This sounds like a scam. No way the IRS is giving priority to people who use some service. I'll stay on hold for 3 hours before paying someone else to do it.

It's not that the IRS is giving you priority - Claimyr literally just waits on hold for you in the regular IRS queue. Instead of you being the one listening to hold music for hours, their system does it. When an IRS agent finally picks up, they connect you. You're still getting through the same way as everyone else, just without having to personally sit there waiting. It's definitely not a scam. They don't ask for any personal tax info or anything like that. They're just a hold waiting service. I was skeptical too until I tried it - was expecting to be on hold for 3+ hours like usual but got a call back within 2 hours with an actual IRS agent on the line.

Does it matter if I paid them through my escrow account vs directly? I'm confused because sometimes my mortgage company pays them and sometimes I do.

If you paid them through your escrow account, they should already be included on your 1098 form since your mortgage servicer is the one actually sending the payment to the tax authority. Your 1098 will reflect those payments. If you paid property taxes directly to the county/tax authority yourself (separate from your mortgage), then those won't be on your 1098 and you need to add them manually when calculating your deductions.

All your property tax payments get combined into one total on Schedule A, line 5b "State and local real estate taxes." This includes property taxes reported on your 1098, property taxes you paid at closing, and any property taxes you paid directly to your local tax authority.