In Australia and most progressive countries there are no joint tax returns. I think that is much better.
Hi,
I can't seem to figure out, does the IRS care if only one person claims the mortgage interest deduction? My fiancee and I bought our place together last March. She started to fill out an online tax form (H R Block) and we were all set to have her take all of the mortgage deduction because she makes a bit more than I do. However, the form asked if someone else was on the mortgage, to which she replied "yes". It then instructed her that she cannot efile because the IRS requires a letter "explaining" our situation. Have you had any experience with this? We figured out that if we split the deduction we get MUCH less back.
Bill,
We file on paper, and we enclose a letter explaining that we both own the house and here are both our SSNs, and that my partner is taking the entire deduction because he pays the mortgage. That's not really true, of course, since the mortgage is paid out of a joint account with both our paychecks going into it, but it's not our fault the IRS refuses to see us as a financially interdependent unit.
I'll try to write a blog post about this or resurrect an old one in case you don't come back to the comments on this post.
Thanks for your question.
Commenting by HaloScan
