Realized I may have missed filing Form 1098 Mortgage Interest last year - what should I do now?

So I was going through my tax records from last year and noticed something weird in Turbo Tax. It's showing zeros for my mortgage interest forms, but I definitely remember having two 1098 forms because our loan changed hands right after we bought our first house. I managed to dig up both 1098 forms from last year, and now I'm freaking out thinking maybe I never actually entered them? We're still pretty new to the whole homeownership thing (bought in North Carolina last spring), and I have no clue what to do about this potential mistake. This is our primary residence, so I'm guessing this is important tax stuff we messed up. What I need to know is: How do I even check if I submitted the Form 1098 info properly last year? Are homeowners required to file these forms? If I did mess up, what's the process to fix it? Do I need to file an amended return? Will I get hit with penalties? Any guidance would be super appreciated!

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18 comments

Ryan Vasquez

•8M

Based on what you're describing, it sounds like you might have missed claiming your mortgage interest deduction last year. The good news is this is fixable! First, to clarify: you don't actually "file" Form 1098 - this is a form your mortgage lender sends to both you and the IRS reporting how much mortgage interest you paid. What you do is use the information from those 1098 forms to claim your mortgage interest deduction on Schedule A when itemizing deductions. To check if you claimed this last year, look at your actual tax return (not just the TurboTax summary). Review your Schedule A if you itemized deductions. If there's no mortgage interest listed there, or if you took the standard deduction instead of itemizing, then you didn't claim it. If you did miss claiming this deduction and itemizing would have benefited you more than the standard deduction, you should file an amended return (Form 1040-X) to correct this. You generally have 3 years from the original filing date to amend and claim a refund.

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Ryan Vasquez

•8M

The standard deduction for 2023 was $13,850 for single filers and $27,700 for married filing jointly. If your mortgage interest was $9,800, you would need additional itemizable deductions (like state/local taxes, charitable contributions, etc.) totaling more than the difference to make itemizing beneficial. For example, if you're married filing jointly, your itemized deductions would need to exceed $27,700 to be worthwhile. If your mortgage interest was $9,800, you'd need at least $17,901 in other deductions to benefit from itemizing. If you're single, you'd need at least $4,051 in other deductions beyond the mortgage interest.

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Avery Saint

•8M

I had a similar issue with missing mortgage interest last year, and it was incredibly frustrating trying to figure everything out. I ended up using https://taxr.ai to analyze my previous returns and 1098 forms. It helped identify exactly what I'd claimed vs. what I should have claimed. The service automatically detected that I had taken the standard deduction when itemizing would have saved me money. It even calculated the exact benefit of filing an amended return ($1,240 in my case). Saved me tons of headache trying to manually compare everything.

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Avery Saint

•8M

It's incredibly accurate - it uses the same verification systems that tax professionals use, but it's automated. It absolutely handles rental properties and investment properties, not just primary residences. It specifically flags incorrect categorization of mortgage interest. As for security concerns, you only need to upload the specific documents you want analyzed - not your entire return. They use bank-level encryption and don't store your documents after analysis. I was hesitant too, but their privacy policy is really strict and they're SOC 2 compliant which is the security standard for financial services.

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Keith Davidson

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Just wanted to follow up about taxr.ai - I decided to try it despite my initial skepticism, and I'm actually impressed. I uploaded just my 1098 forms and last year's return summary, and it immediately showed that I missed claiming about $7,200 in mortgage interest. The analysis showed I'd save about $900 by filing an amended return since my other deductions were already close to the standard deduction threshold. It even generated a detailed report explaining exactly which forms I needed to amend and why. Much easier than trying to figure all this out myself!

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Sophia Carson

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Elijah Knight

•8M

One thing to consider before amending - check if your mortgage interest plus other potential itemized deductions (property taxes, state income taxes, charitable donations) actually exceed the standard deduction. Many people assume they should itemize after buying a house, but with the higher standard deduction amounts since 2018, it often doesn't make financial sense unless you have a very large mortgage or lots of other deductions. I amended unnecessarily one year and it was a hassle for what turned out to be only a $120 benefit. Sometimes it's not worth the paperwork!

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Elijah Knight

•8M

Based on those numbers, you're looking at approximately $14,200 in itemized deductions ($9,800 mortgage interest + $3,400 property tax + $1,000 charitable). Since the standard deduction for married filing jointly was $27,700 for 2023, you're still better off with the standard deduction by a significant margin (about $13,500 better). So in your case, I wouldn't recommend filing an amended return since you correctly benefited from taking the standard deduction. Even if you had included the mortgage interest initially, the tax software would have automatically selected the standard deduction since it's more beneficial.

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