Bond premium on tax exempt bonds help

Assuming the taxpayer has a single 1099-Int:

(1099-Int Line 8) ? (1099-Int Line 13) = (Form 1040 Line 2A)

If you pay a premium to buy a bond, the premium is part of your cost basis in the bond. You can choose to amortize the bond premium.

For example, you buy a bond that has a face value of $1,000 for $1,100 that has 10 years left before the bond matures. In this example, the bond premium paid is $100. If you choose to NOT amortize the bond premium, your cost basis in the bond will remain $1,100. If you choose to amortize the bond premium over the 10 years of life the bond has left, then you would have an amortizable bond premium of $10 each year. You would enter that $10 as amortizable bond premium and it will reduce your taxable interest income by $10. Each year your cost basis in the bond would reduce by the $10. So after the first year, your cost basis in the bond would be $1,090 instead of $1,100, and after ten years your cost basis in the bond would be $1,000.

For tax-exempt interest, there is no choice.

From Pub 550: "If the bond yields tax-exempt interest, you must amortize the premium."

Thank you for the correction. I see I mis-attributed what FreeTaxUSA.com says. What I quoted is not the help for 1099-Int Line 13. What I quoted is the help for 1099-Int Line 11 "Bond Premium."