I think we all knew the difficult situation that we would face about the deduction of property tax in the 2017 tax return even before the tax season. The announcement about the new rules almost by the end of the year made this confusion almost impossible to avoid.
Here is the situation:
Client has his property tax paid through the lender through an escrow account. He has contacted the lender before the end of 2017 to make the 2nd payment of the 2017-2018 tax bill for him. The lender said they would do the best.
Now on the 2017 Form 1098, the lender added that payment in box 11 "Real Estate Taxes". So it implies the lender says the payment was made in 2017.
But when we checked on the county website, it says it was 'paid' on 1-18-2018. I think it must be the date that they finally had the time to process the payment. (Yes, I know, I know, they were very very busy)
So is it a 2017 deduction or is it not?