Guaranteed Rate, now branded as Rate, posts your annual mortgage tax documents to its online servicing portal, usually several weeks before paper copies go out in the mail. The document that matters most is IRS Form 1098, which reports the mortgage interest you paid during the year and feeds the itemized deduction section of your return. To get it, log in at the Rate Servicing site, open the Document Center, and select the Taxes tab. Your 1098 and year-end escrow analysis will be there as downloadable PDFs.
How to Access Your Documents Online
Sign in to Rate Servicing with your existing account credentials. In the Document Center, choose the Taxes category, and your Form 1098 and year-end escrow analysis will appear as PDFs you can save, print, or upload directly into tax software. These are official documents, not previews.
If you’ve never set up online access, you can register using your loan number and the personal information tied to your mortgage account. Borrowers who haven’t opted into electronic delivery will still receive a paper copy in the mail. Setting up the portal is worth doing even if you like paper: the electronic version posts earlier and won’t get lost between the servicer and your mailbox in the weeks before the April 15 filing deadline.1Internal Revenue Service. When to File
When Your Form 1098 Should Arrive
Federal law requires every mortgage servicer to furnish Form 1098 by January 31 of the year after the tax year being reported.2Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1098, Mortgage Interest Statement For the 2025 tax year, the deadline is January 31, 2026. The electronic version in the portal often appears in mid-to-late January; paper copies can take until early February.
If January 31 passes and you don’t see the form online or in the mail, call the servicing number on your monthly statement and ask for a reissue. You’re entitled to another copy at no charge. Don’t wait until April to chase it down. The earlier you flag a missing form, the more time you have to resolve it before you file.
What’s on Your Form 1098
Guaranteed Rate must file a Form 1098 whenever it receives $600 or more in mortgage interest from you during the calendar year.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6050H The form has numbered boxes, and each reports a distinct piece of your loan’s activity for the year.
- Box 1, Mortgage Interest Received: the total interest you paid during the year. This is the figure that goes to Schedule A, line 8a, if you itemize.4Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Schedule A (Form 1040)
- Box 2, Outstanding Mortgage Principal: your remaining balance as of January 1 of the tax year, or as of the origination or acquisition date if that fell during the year.5Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1098
- Box 3, Mortgage Origination Date: when the loan was first created. This date determines which mortgage interest deduction limit applies.
- Box 4, Refund of Overpaid Interest: any interest from a prior year that Guaranteed Rate refunded to you. You may owe tax on it if you deducted the original payment.
- Box 5, Mortgage Insurance Premiums: total private mortgage insurance or FHA premiums paid during the year.
- Box 6, Points Paid on Purchase of Principal Residence: discount points you paid at closing on a home purchase.
Using the Numbers on Your Tax Return
Mortgage Interest Deduction Limits
The Box 1 figure isn’t automatically deductible in full. The cap depends on when your loan originated. For loans taken out after December 15, 2017, you can deduct interest on up to $750,000 of mortgage debt, or $375,000 if married filing separately. For loans dated on or before December 15, 2017, the older $1,000,000 limit applies, or $500,000 for married filing separately.6Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Publication 936
If your balance sits comfortably below $750,000, the cap doesn’t affect you and you can deduct the full Box 1 amount, assuming you itemize. Larger loans need a proportional calculation, and IRS Publication 936 walks through the math. Confirm the date in Box 3 to see which limit applies.
Property Taxes From Your Escrow Statement
The year-end escrow analysis shows the property taxes Guaranteed Rate paid from your escrow account. That figure goes on Schedule A, line 5b, as state and local real estate taxes.4Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Schedule A (Form 1040) Property taxes are combined with either state income tax or state sales tax under the SALT cap, which is $40,000 for the 2025 tax year ($20,000 if married filing separately) and $40,400 for 2026.7Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 These limits replaced the previous $10,000 cap under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in 2025.8Internal Revenue Service. How to Update Withholding to Account for Tax Law Changes for 2025 Higher-income households should note that the cap phases down for modified adjusted gross income above $500,000 ($250,000 if married filing separately), gradually returning to $10,000 as income rises.
Points and Mortgage Insurance
Points shown in Box 6 may be fully deductible in the year paid if you bought your primary home, the points were calculated as a percentage of the loan, and they represent a standard charge in your area.9Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 504, Home Mortgage Points Points paid on a refinance almost always deduct gradually over the life of the loan. If you refinance again before the previous loan’s points are fully written off, you can deduct the remaining unamortized balance in the year of the new refinance.
Box 5 mortgage insurance premiums were deductible through the 2021 tax year, but that provision expired and has not been renewed.10Congress.gov. H.R. 918 – Mortgage Insurance Tax Deduction Act Legislation to reinstate it has been introduced but not enacted. Keep your 1098 in case Congress restores the deduction retroactively, as it has done before.
Standard Deduction or Itemize?
All of this only matters if your itemized deductions exceed the standard deduction. For 2026, the standard deduction is $32,200 for married couples filing jointly and $16,100 for single filers.11Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 Having a mortgage doesn’t automatically mean itemizing pays off. A borrower with $8,000 of mortgage interest and $4,000 of property taxes has $12,000 in those two categories, below both thresholds. Add up your numbers before assuming the 1098 changes your tax bill.
Special Situations
If Your Loan Was Sold or Transferred Mid-Year
Mortgage loans move between servicers all the time. If Guaranteed Rate transferred your loan to another company partway through the year, or received it from another servicer, you’ll get two 1098s covering the two portions of the year. Both are valid. Report both on your return by adding the Box 1 amounts to get your total deductible interest. The origination date on both forms should still match your original loan date, because a servicing transfer isn’t a new mortgage.
Refinances and Cash-Out Loans
For a standard rate-and-term refinance, interest remains deductible under the same rules. Box 3 on your new 1098 will show the refinance date, which can change your applicable debt limit if the refinance crossed the December 15, 2017 line.
Cash-out refinances split into two categories for tax purposes. Interest is only deductible on the portion of debt used to buy, build, or substantially improve the home. If you pulled $75,000 in equity to pay off credit cards, interest on that $75,000 isn’t deductible.6Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Publication 936 Your 1098 reports total interest paid without breaking out how you used the money, so you or your preparer will need to do the allocation.
Second Homes and Rentals
The mortgage interest deduction covers your main home and one second home, with the combined debt on both counting toward the $750,000 or $1,000,000 cap.12Internal Revenue Service. Real Estate (Taxes, Mortgage Interest, Points, Other Property Expenses)
Rental properties work differently. If a Guaranteed Rate-financed property is used exclusively as a rental, mortgage interest isn’t reported on Schedule A. It goes on Schedule E as a rental expense against your rental income.13Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Schedule E (Form 1040) Same 1098, entirely different line on your return. Mixed-use properties require splitting expenses between personal and rental use.
Fixing Errors or a Corrected 1098
If the numbers on your Form 1098 don’t match your own records, compare your year-end statement to your bank records first. The most common mismatches involve payments near the year-end cutoff or prepaid interest allocated at closing.
Call the servicing number on your statement and ask for a formal review. If Guaranteed Rate confirms an error, it’s required to issue a corrected Form 1098 with the “Corrected” box checked. Keep both versions.
If you already filed before the corrected form arrives, file an amended return on Form 1040-X to adjust your Schedule A figures.14Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040-X The IRS receives every version your servicer files, and a mismatch between your return and the corrected report is a reliable way to draw an IRS notice.