Mortgage Interest Deduction Question for Home Mortgage Refi

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
April 11, 2025
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In the mortgage interest deduction section in TurboTax, it reads, "Since you first took out this loan, how much has been spent to buy, improve, or build the home it's secured by?" Is this question asking how much I have spent to pay off the mortgage refi loan ("buy the home") since I closed on the loan? Is it also asking how much have I spent on improving the home since I closed on the refi loan?

TurboTax Home & Biz Windows

SharonD007

It's asking how much of the money you used from your refinance to improve your home. You can deduct mortgage interest when the loan proceeds are used to buy, build, or improve your main home and one other home you own and use for personal purposes.

Refer to the TurboTax article Mortgage Interest Deduction: How Does it Work? for additional information.

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environmentalguruAuthor

To clarify, do we deduct the amount that was spent to pay off other debt from the amount of the mortgage refi to obtain the answer to "Since you first took out this loan, how much has been spent to buy, improve, or build the home it's secured by?" If we didn't use any of the mortgage refi proceeds to improve the home when we closed on the loan, do we enter zero for this question. I am not sure what they mean by "buy." How can you use the mortgage refi proceeds to buy the same home that the loan is secured by?