Hellobee Boards

Yeah, I believe ours will be interest + taxes. I'm hoping those + my student loan interest will give us a nice refund this year

Yeah I'm about 99% sure that we're not going to see any benefit. Even with 75% our payments going toward interest and taxes right now, we won't meet the $11,600 required to itemize. Which I have to be honest, is a total bummer. Everybody makes it sound like owning a house is such a great write-off, but... not always.

You don't have to itemize to take advantage of student loan interest.

@MrsBrewer: Yeah, you should get a form from your lender (it's only if you pay a certain amount in interest) and then there's a line for it on your return. Turbo Tax just asks us and we enter it and it's automatically calculated. It doesn't deduct all the interest you paid, just a small portion.

@MrsBrewer: Totally!

@ladyfingers: Yeah, we didn't see any real benefit either after buying a home (we've owed every single year since we got married, home or not).

@MrsBrewer: The interest is a deduction you take (you don't have to itemize to benefit). I think the limit is $2,500 in interest paid but I might be off on that. Your student loan company will provide you a statement that shows the amount of interest you paid in 2011. If you file a regular 1040, the instruction booklet explains what to do - it's very easy to do!

@MrsBrewer: If you have online access to your student loans, the tax statements will be available there. Ours (we have 4 loans ourselves haha) are usually available about mid-month. I am not math inclined, but always found it easy to figure out, so don't worry!