Updated October 17, 2026. Quick answer: Box 5 of Form 1098 shows mortgage insurance premiums your lender received, when they are reportable at all. The filer instructions set a threshold of $600 on each mortgage, counted one mortgage at a time. The borrower copy says an amount in the box may qualify as deductible mortgage interest and points you to the Schedule A instructions and Publication 936, so confirm the rule for your year before you deduct anything.
Related reading on this site: IRS Publication 936.
What box 5 reports
On the form the box is labelled “Mortgage insurance premiums”. The borrower copy explains it in two sentences: “If an amount is reported in this box, it may qualify to be treated as deductible mortgage interest.” “See the calendar year Schedule A (Form 1040) instructions and Pub. 936.”
The wording is hedged on purpose. The box tells you what the lender received; it does not decide whether any of it reduces your tax. This page covers the box only. The rest of the statement is laid out in the Form 1098 boxes guide, and the form as a whole is introduced in the Form 1098 overview. Interest itself is in the box 1 page.
The $600 test is applied mortgage by mortgage
The instructions to the lender spell out the threshold and how it is counted: “enter the total premiums of $600 or more paid (received) for the tax year being reported, including prepaid premiums, for qualified mortgage insurance”. Then: “Receipt of $600 or more of MIP is determined on a mortgage-by-mortgage basis.” “Do not aggregate MIP received on all of the mortgages of an individual to determine whether the $600 threshold is met.”
| Situation | What the filer instructions say |
|---|---|
| The lender collects $600 or more of qualified mortgage insurance premiums on one mortgage | “Receipt of $600 or more of MIP is determined on a mortgage-by-mortgage basis.” |
| The lender collects less than $600 on one mortgage but $600 or more across your mortgages | “You do not need to report MIP of less than $600 received on a mortgage” |
| You paid premiums in advance | “See Prepaid Mortgage Insurance, earlier, for the tax treatment of prepaid MIP.” |
As an illustration, not an IRS example: suppose one lender collected $400 of qualified premiums on your first mortgage and $300 on a second. The combined total is $400 + $300 = $700 in all, above $600, yet each mortgage is below $600, so the instructions quoted above mean neither mortgage needs a box 5 amount from that lender.
What counts as qualified mortgage insurance
Not every insurance charge on a home loan is covered. The filer instructions define the term: “Qualified mortgage insurance is mortgage insurance under a contract issued after December 31, 2006, and provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Housing Administration, or the Rural Housing Service (or their successor organizations), and private mortgage insurance, as defined by section 2 of the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998 (as in effect on December 20, 2006).”
Publication 936 also separates premiums from other loan charges: it lists services connected to a loan, including “Mortgage insurance premiums”, and says “You can’t deduct these amounts as points either in the year paid or over the life of the mortgage.” So a premium never belongs in the points box described on the box 6 page.
The provision may not apply for the year
The filer instructions open the box 5 section with a caution: “To see if the applicability of this provision has been extended, and therefore reporting is required” the lender is sent to the IRS page for Form 1098. The reporting duty itself is conditional: “If section 163(h)(3)(E) applies for the tax year being reported”. The same condition appears where the instructions say who must file: “$600 or more of MIP, if section 163(h)(3)(E) applies for the reporting year”.
For a borrower this means two things can both be true. A lender may or may not print an amount in box 5, and an amount that is printed still points you to the Schedule A instructions and Publication 936. The 2025 edition of that publication opens with this reminder: “The itemized deduction for mortgage insurance premiums has expired.” The Schedule A guide at Schedule A (Form 1040) is the place to see how itemized lines fit together, and the instructions for your own tax year decide what applies to you.
Prepaid premiums
Box 5 includes prepaid premiums in the amount counted against the threshold. The tax treatment is not the same as for a premium paid for the current period: “Except for amounts paid to the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Rural Housing Service, payments allocable to periods after 2007 are treated as paid in the periods to which they are allocable.” If you paid a large amount at closing, ask your lender how it was allocated before you rely on the box 5 figure. Publication 936 says what the statement should show: “The statement will show the total interest you paid during the year, any mortgage insurance premiums you paid”.
Edition and box numbers
The primary read for this page is Form 1098 (Rev. April 2025), including its Instructions for Payer/Borrower on the borrower copy, together with the Instructions for Form 1098 (Rev. April 2025) and Publication 936 for 2025 returns. The Instructions for Form 1098 (Rev. December 2026) were the current instructions irs.gov served on 2026-10-17 and were compared line by line. The form copy served that day still reads “Form 1098 (Rev. 4-2025)”. The box 5 instructions did change. The April 2025 text begins with the sentence about extension and with the condition “If section 163(h)(3)(E) applies for the tax year being reported”. The December 2026 text, as read, begins instead with “Enter the total premiums of $600 or more paid (received) for the tax year being reported, including prepaid”, and the extension sentence is absent from it. The $600 threshold, the mortgage-by-mortgage rule and the definition of qualified mortgage insurance are worded the same in both. The condition about section 163(h)(3)(E) still appears in the December 2026 text under who must file. Check the revision and the calendar year printed on the statement you received.
Common mistakes
- Adding premiums from different loans to test the threshold. The instructions say “Do not aggregate MIP received on all of the mortgages of an individual”.
- Treating a box 5 amount as automatically deductible. The form says it “may qualify to be treated as deductible mortgage interest”, which is a condition, not a result.
- Expecting a box 5 figure every year because one appeared before. The reporting is tied to whether “section 163(h)(3)(E) applies for the tax year being reported”.
Related: Form 1098 overview, Schedule A (Form 1040), insurance after the mortgage is paid off, and Form 1040.
Sources
- Form 1098 (Rev. 4-2025) with Instructions for Payer/Borrower: IRS archived PDF (irs.gov)
- Form 1098 as served by irs.gov on 2026-10-17, with Instructions for Payer/Borrower: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1098.pdf
- Instructions for Form 1098 (Rev. April 2025): IRS archived PDF (irs.gov)
- Instructions for Form 1098 (Rev. December 2026): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1098.pdf
- Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction (for 2025 returns): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p936.pdf
Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 17, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.