Standard vs Itemized Deduction Calculator

Add up your itemized deductions — mortgage interest, up to $10,000 of state and local tax, charitable gifts, and large medical bills. If the total beats your standard deduction, itemize; otherwise take the standard. Since 2018's larger standard deduction and SALT cap, roughly nine in ten filers take the standard.

State and local taxes — income or sales tax plus property tax — are deductible only up to $10,000 combined ($5,000 if married filing separately). In high-tax states a homeowner can easily pay two or three times that, and the excess simply is not deductible. It is the change that ended itemizing for many.

Mortgage interest on up to $750,000 of loans, state and local taxes up to $10,000, charitable donations, medical expenses above 7.5% of adjusted gross income, and a few less common items. Notably not: most unreimbursed work expenses, which were removed in 2018.

Concentrating deductible expenses into alternating years so you clear the itemizing threshold in one year and take the standard deduction in the next. Giving two years of charitable donations at once — often through a donor-advised fund — is the common technique. It captures a benefit that steady annual giving would miss.

In effect, yes. Since you would get the standard deduction regardless, the real value of itemizing is only the amount by which your itemized total exceeds it, multiplied by your marginal rate. Itemizing $500 above the standard deduction saves very little — worth remembering before spending hours on receipts.