1098s from Ocwen

[BP.]

FYI if you see any of these.

Have already had clients getting two 1098s from this lender this year with the same account number, reporting differing amounts of interest and taxes. Hmmm. I was puzzled.

One of the clients thoughtfully included Ocwen's statement: Add the two together as they were "unable to create a single combined statement . . ."

Good to know.

[kathyc2]

Thanks for the heads up. Ocwen 1098's always seem to have some kind of problems.

[DaveinTexas]

Different Taxpayer

I had a client bring in 2 Ocwen forms 1098 too, but the other statement was in another person's name! The mailman's fault, no doubt, as the other form belonged to her neighbor.

[JohnH]

Glad you posted that. A couple of hours after reading your post, I noticed two Ocwen statements in a client folder which had just come in. Rather than going down the Q&A path about a refi, I looked at the account number. Sure enough, both statements bore the same account number and the total interest was slightly less than last year's deduction.

[BP.]

Ah, that's good! This'll drive people mad. The first pair was on an out-of-state rental, so client was particularly clue-free.

[JohnH]

It does cause one to stop and think about something. If a client comes in with a single 1098 from Ocwen, it might be a particularly good idea to compare total interest to the prior year's deduction. Better yet, the past two years in order to approximate the average decrease in the total interest paid annually.

It could be that they originally had two statements but didn't look at the amounts and threw one away thinking it was a duplicate (or kept only the higher one, thinking it was a correction.)

Or maybe I'm the only one who has clients who do stuff like that.