Mortgage Forbearance & Taxes

[Vanka]

Hi. So we can deduct a percentage of our mortgage interest from our taxes.
But if we have paused the mortgage payments due to the pandemic (we got a mortgage forbearance for 6 months, from December 2020-June 2021), how would it work for tax purposes? Can i not claim anything? I know i haven't paid mortgage interest for Dec 2020, but i will pay it some other time, right? So, can i claim a tax deduction for estimated mortgage interest for Dec 2020 on my 2020 tax filings?
Also, how would it work for 2021? If i haven't paid mortgage for 5 months, can i not claim any housing expenses for those months?
My daycare is operating under extremely reduced capacity and i don't have much revenue, but still i would like to deduct the morgage interest percentage? Can i?

[Vanka]

Follow up question: so i've googled a bit and looks like there is a simplified version of measuring your home area used for daycare, where you deduct 5$ for every sqft used of your home. If my home is 800sqft and i use 100% space of it for daycare, can i deduct $1500 for my home usage? (as the deduction is capped at $1,500 maximum.)
Honestly, i would prefer to use this, because i get more tax reductions this way and it makes my life easier?? Does it make sense?

Also, if i'm using our home for daycare, and my husband is also self employed and working from home, can i claim the $1500 for my daycare and he another $1500 for his business? (so total $3000 tax deduction for home use?) We are filing as married filing jointly if that matters.

[Michael]

Here are some related threads: https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...tgage+interest

[Vanka]

Thanks Michael, i had a look but there was nothing about forbearance
Also, if that matters we bought our home last year and this is my first time doing home use deduction as an owner.

[TomCopeland]

Originally Posted by Vanka

Hi. So we can deduct a percentage of our mortgage interest from our taxes.
But if we have paused the mortgage payments due to the pandemic (we got a mortgage forbearance for 6 months, from December 2020-June 2021), how would it work for tax purposes? Can i not claim anything? I know i haven't paid mortgage interest for Dec 2020, but i will pay it some other time, right? So, can i claim a tax deduction for estimated mortgage interest for Dec 2020 on my 2020 tax filings?
Also, how would it work for 2021? If i haven't paid mortgage for 5 months, can i not claim any housing expenses for those months?
My daycare is operating under extremely reduced capacity and i don't have much revenue, but still i would like to deduct the morgage interest percentage? Can i?

You can only deduct expenses you actually paid for the year. So, if you only paid for 7 months of mortgage interest, that's what you can deduct. When you pay the rest of the interest later, that's when you can deduct it. You can claim other housing expenses that you do pay: utilities, property tax, house insurance, etc.

[TomCopeland]

Originally Posted by Vanka

Follow up question: so i've googled a bit and looks like there is a simplified version of measuring your home area used for daycare, where you deduct 5$ for every sqft used of your home. If my home is 800sqft and i use 100% space of it for daycare, can i deduct $1500 for my home usage? (as the deduction is capped at $1,500 maximum.)
Honestly, i would prefer to use this, because i get more tax reductions this way and it makes my life easier?? Does it make sense?

Also, if i'm using our home for daycare, and my husband is also self employed and working from home, can i claim the $1500 for my daycare and he another $1500 for his business? (so total $3000 tax deduction for home use?) We are filing as married filing jointly if that matters.

You don't want to use this simplified method. That's because your house expenses will be lower. You must multiply the $5 by your Time percent. If your Time percent was 40%, then you can only deduct $2 ($5 x 40%) x 300 square feet or $600. That's way lower than what you can deduct with property tax, mortgage interest, house insurance, utilities, house repairs and house depreciation on Form8829. Your husband would have to use a room exclusively for his business to be able to use this simplified method. If so, he may be able to claim $1,500 on his Schedule C.

[TomCopeland]

Originally Posted by Vanka

Thanks Michael, i had a look but there was nothing about forbearance
Also, if that matters we bought our home last year and this is my first time doing home use deduction as an owner.

See more about why you don't want to use this simplified method: http://tomcopelandblog.com/new-simplified

Your servicer will most likely cover the escrowed portion of your payment, which usually pays for property taxes and homeowners' insurance, during a forbearance.