Who can claim the home mortgage interest deduction?

Just a little financial advice from Coach Credit and friends:

You can only claim the mortgage interest deduction on your tax return if you are liable for the repayment of the loan.

In other words, you must be named on the mortgage.

The tax court has recently ruled against a taxpayer who was trying to claim her boyfriend's mortgage interest on her return.  Although she was making the payments on the loan, the mortgage note was under the name of her boyfriend only.  As a result the court ruled against her deduction and she had to pay the fines and penalties associated with the corrected tax return.  (Wheeler, TC Summ. OP. 2011-83)

So an important lesson to be learned is that the IRS is serious about enforcing this deduction and are performing more audits on returns that claim the mortgage interest deduction.