Tax Question

BuffaloSaint said

I actually have a 12 year old dependent so that's why I'm going to be filing as head of household. I don't think that we'll both have enough deductions to both use schedule A as we were only paying mortgage interest for half the year so my plan is to give it all to her. I did some playing around with the numbers on one of the tax calculators and it seemed to be the best way to go. Hopefully we end up with a decent refund because we're getting married in June and the bills for the wedding are stacking up quick.

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OK, You would file as Head of Household with the dependent child. She would have to file as single. The standard deduction for a single person is $5,700. If all her deductions exceed that amount, then it would make sense for her to claim the mortgage interest. However, her name MUST be on the mortgage document for her to claim the interest.

The reason I am emphasizing that she must be on the mortgage is that her name is not on the 1098. Usually both names would appear if there were co-owners. However, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the lender left a name off.