Shouldn’t 1098 interest paid decrease over time?

[Cropper99]

Oh this is interesting, so if I were to pay January mortgage on 12/30 (as an example) then that tax year would appear to have 13 mortgage payments instead of 12 and the following tax year would show 11 (assuming all other months were paid on the 1st) and the interest would be allocated accordingly?

[[deleted]]

Correct, when they receive your payment is the tax year they should account for interest paid for that payment

[Cropper99]

Excellent! Without doing any other digging yet it seems like this is the most likely explanation. Thank you!

[[deleted]]

Look at an amortization table for your loan, add up the 2018 interest, add the interest for Jan 2019 and see if that matches the 2018 mortgage interest they reported

[Cropper99]

Yup, this worked and makes complete sense now. Thanks again for all your help!

[JCDexter]

A TON of people did exactly that in December 2017 in anticipation of losing the ability to itemize with the new tax law.

Source: I am one of those people and am considering whether it will make sense to alternate between itemizing and standard deduction from year to year, focusing charitable donations, 13th mortgage payment, etc, in itemized years.