Can you itemize and take standard deduction

Instead of taking the standard deduction, you always have the option of itemizing your deductions. This means you individually deduct the actual amounts of certain expenses item by item instead of taking the standard deduction.

This is a lot more work than taking the standard deduction. You have to know what expenses are deductible and keep track of them. You also need to keep records of your expenses. Cancelled checks or credit card statements are not enough—you need to keep receipts and other bills showing what you spent the money on.

Itemized deductions are usually personal in nature, and don't include business expenses. Some of the more common ones are:. The largest of these deductions are those for home mortgage interest, property taxes, and state income tax.

For this reason, homeowners are more likely to itemize, while renters rarely do so. However, most of these expenses cannot be deducted in full.

Instead, they are subject to special limitations. The TCJA stiffened the limitations for many of these deductions. Casualty losses are deductible only for losses due to federally declared disasters.

Medical expenses are deductible only to the extent they exceed 7. Moreover, the TCJA eliminated itemized deductions for several types of expenses during through —these include:. You must choose whether to itemize or take the standard deduction each year. The IRS won't tell you what's in your best interest—it doesn't care if you make the wrong choice and overpay your taxes. You or your tax preparer must decide.

Obviously, you should itemize only if it will give you a larger total deduction than the standard deduction for that year. These include cash contributions and donations of food, and they apply both to individuals and corporations. Any casualty or theft loss incurred as a result of a federally declared disaster can be reported on Schedule A. If a taxpayer incurs a casualty loss in one year and deducts it on their taxes, any reimbursement that is received in later years must be counted as income.

Taxpayers must complete Form and report the loss on Schedule A. Now, you must fall into one of four categories to be able to claim job-related expenses. You must be either an armed forces reservist, a qualified performing artist, a state or local government official working on a fee basis, or an employee with impairment-related work expenses.

Workers who fall into these categories and claim expenses must complete Form This final category of itemized deductions includes items such as gambling losses to the extent of gambling winnings, losses from partnerships or subchapter S corporations, estate taxes on income in respect of a decedent IRD , and certain other expenses. Some of these deductions are eliminated or changed from to For the tax year and onward, check with your tax advisor.

These deductions almost doubled starting in after the passage of the TCJA. Previously, taxpayers with AGIs above certain levels were subject to limits on how much they could claim in itemized deductions.

There are times when the additional deduction realized from excess medical or job-related expenses will allow itemized deductions to exceed the standard deduction. Therefore, you should not simply assume you cannot deduct miscellaneous expenses or that you cannot itemize deductions if your itemizable deductions are insufficient by themselves for you to qualify. Many rules concerning itemized deductions are beyond the scope of this article.

Working with an experienced and competent tax preparer can help to ensure those rules are applied to your tax return. Your tax preparer should also be able to allow you to determine whether you should itemize or take the standard deduction. Be sure to take some time to review what to expect from through based on the new tax legislation.

Internal Revenue Service. United States Congress. Accessed March 18, Income Tax. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile.

Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Your Money. To decide whether itemizing is worth it, you will need to do some math. Add up all the expenses you wish to itemize.

Another big consideration is that itemizing will require a bit more work. Itemizing requires you to keep receipts throughout the year. You also need to keep those receipts after you file just in case of an audit. For most people, there is a balance between the work required to itemize and the amount you save by itemizing. Generally speaking, itemizing is a good idea if the value of your itemized expenses is more than the value of the standard deduction.

Because the new tax plan nearly doubled the standard deduction for the tax year when compared with before it went into effect, some people who itemized their taxes will not benefit from itemizing their taxes. Even if itemizing would save you more than the standard deduction, consider the amount of time and energy that also goes with itemizing.