• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

What Are Itemized Deductions?

What Are Itemized Deductions?

What are Itemized Deductions?

Itemized Deductions are a type of Allowable deductions in the federal income tax, in which actual expenses are considered instead of a fixed amount of Standard Deduction.

Taxpayers are allowed to choose any one type of allowable deductions in Form 1040 of Federal Income Tax.

They can either choose the amount of standard deduction fixed by IRS or choose to go for itemized deductions.

Which Expenses are claimable under Itemized Deduction?

Generally, some of the itemized deductions which a taxpayer can claim are in following categories:

  • Medical and Dental Expenses and some of the medical insurance premiums exceeding the 10% amount of your AGI
  • State and Local Income Taxes.
  • Stae and Local Sales Taxes.
  • Real Estate Property Taxes.
  • Personal Property Taxes. (eg. registration fees of a motor vehicle)
  • Home mortgage Interests.
  • Interest paid on Investments. (eg. margin interest)
  • Gifts to charities and Churches.
  • Donations in Cash to Charities and Churches.
  • Losses due to casualty or theft.
  • Non-reimbursed Employee expenses by your employer.
  • Fees paid for Tax Preparation.
  • Gambling Losses to the extent of gambling winnings.

What are the limitations of Itemized Deductions?

The Federal Tax Authority limits the itemized deductions when the AGI of a taxpayer exceeds a certain limit based on his filing status.

These limits are called Phase out limits for Taxpayers or Pease Limitations of Itemized Deduction.

Itemized Deductions

Pease Limitations for the year 2017

Single – $ 261,500

Married Filing Jointly – $ 313,800

Head Of Household – $ 287,650

Married Filing Separately – $ 156,900

Source: www.forbes.com

You can calculate your AGI with our Adjusted Gross Income Calculator.

You can also download other excel templates like Traditional IRA Calculator, Roth IRA Calculator and Income Statement Projection for easy calculations.

When to choose for Itemized Deduction?

When deciding to go for itemized deduction keep following points in mind:

  1. Total of the all the itemized deductions is higher than the standard deduction limit. This will lower your taxable income and thus save you money.
  2. The taxpayer must have proper documents to present as and when demanded to support your claim for that particular tax period.
  3. When you are a victim of casualties like fire or a victim of federal disasters like flood or wind during the tax period.
  4. High mortgage interest payments or real estate taxes on your home.

A tax advisor will be helpful to you while deciding to go for itemized deduction. They will calculate your taxes in both the ways and suggest you the best option to go for.

We thank our readers for liking, sharing and following us on different social media platforms.

If you have any queries please share in the comment section below. I will be more than happy to assist you.

Filed Under: Tax Glossary

You are Here: Home / Reader's Question / What Are Itemized Deductions?

About Shabbir Bhimani

I have worked in Excel and like to share functional excel templates at ExcelDataPro.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ExcelDataPro

Free Excel Pro Templates

  • Glossary
    • Accounting Glossary
    • HR & Payroll Glossary
    • Tax Glossary
  • Templates
    • Accounting
      • Financial Analysis
      • Financial Statement
    • Educational
    • Taxation
      • Federal Income Tax
      • GST
      • UAE VAT
      • UK VAT
    • Human Resources
      • HR & Payroll
      • HR Metrics
    • School Management
    • Social Media
    • Sales-Marketing
    • Personal Finance
    • Other
      • Health & Fitness
  • Functions
  • Calculators
  • Home
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms

© ExcelDataPro 2025. Content Licensed Under Creative Commons with Attribution Required

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT