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On a U.S. Federal tax return, you can write off interest and property tax payments on a mortgage. Who gets to do that? Just the person in whose name the mortgage is? Or anyone on the title of the property?

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  • The property taxes are not tied to the mortgage at all. Many people who have paid off their mortgage still owe property taxes and can deduct them. They are deductible by the person who paid them. Jun 16, 2015 at 4:18

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The name on the Form 1098 that the mortgage lender sends you. That's the SSN and payments reported to the IRS.

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  • So if there are two borrowers how do they divide up the deduction?
    – CommaToast
    Jun 15, 2015 at 23:22
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    I have only personally seen one example where the two were not filing jointly. In that case, they had a legal agreement between them concerning what would happen if one wanted to sell, etc. It included interest / equity information. The bank required that to be written up before issuing the loan. Jun 15, 2015 at 23:29
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    -1 The 1098 is not guaranteed to be correct. The one who can take the deduction is the one who paid the interest. It is true that if what goes on the tax returns doesn't match the 1098 there may be questions, which can be expensive to resolve. Jun 16, 2015 at 4:16
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    @RossMillikan - correct. If someone pays the mortgage on your behalf, you don't get the deduction. Jun 16, 2015 at 12:08
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The person who both (a) is on the mortgage and (b) pays the mortgage.

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