In the eyes of the IRS, the year you get divorced is the same as a year you were never married. Rather than have you file under two different statuses, the IRS treats you and your spouse as unmarried for the entire year. How you divide up tax deductions depends on the divorce agreement and who ends up paying for the house.
Marital Property In divorce, tax write-offs are a marital asset just like a house or an investment account. As part of the breakup, you and your ex have to decide how to divide the mortgage-interest deduction paid for the pre-divorce part of the year.ย It doesn't matter who wrote the check: you can split the deduction evenly or give it to one person. If you both claim the full write-off by mistake, the IRS will have questions, so be very clear who got custody of the deduction.
Unmarried Property Dividing up the deduction for the period after you split depends on how you divide up the house. Ownership is a basic requirement for claiming the mortgage-interest write-off. If one of you takes full title to the house, she's normally the only one who can claim the deduction. If you keep the house and own it as tenants in common, you can each deduct mortgage interest, but only up to a point. If you own 40 percent of the house, for instance, you get 40 percent of the write-off.
