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I am reporting 2014 tax with TaxAct software. One question is about mortgage interest deduction. We bought the house(marriage joint) on 1998. It is our main and only residence. The rough mortgage balance was 70k on 12/31/2013 and was 54k on 12/31/2014. So in 2014 all the time the balance was between 100k and 50k.

The interest we paid was $2634 in 2014. I input the value in the field, however the total refund/owed number is not changed. But last year I used the same software, I did get some deduction.

Is it correct?

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    Do you itemize this year? Do you have schedule A showing more than the standard deduction? If not - the mortgage interest is of no benefit to you. – littleadv Feb 15 '15 at 21:47
  • This^. The interest you paid is pretty low. – Pete B. Feb 16 '15 at 16:59
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You will see a change in your taxes when you itemize your deductions. If interest on the mortgage is your only deduction that isn't enough to be larger than the standard deduction. For 2014 the standard deduction for married filing joint is $12,400.

So what other deductions can you make:

  • Property tax
  • State income taxes
  • Donations to charity

plus many more...

Anything that can be entered on 1040 Schedule A can reduce your taxes

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  • So basically can I say I have to pay off the mortgage as soon as possible since the thread is pretty high....? – Love Feb 15 '15 at 20:47
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    It generally doesn't make sense to pay interest just for the tax savings. But enter the values from last year to see if the state taxes, property tax, and charity take you over the threshold. It only takes a few minutes to see if you can lower your taxes. – mhoran_psprep Feb 15 '15 at 22:07

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