Choosing between the standard deduction and itemized deductions is a math problem: add up your deductible expenses, and if the total beats the flat standard deduction for your filing status, itemize; otherwise, take the standard deduction and skip the paperwork. For 2026, the standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married couples filing jointly.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026, Including Amendments From the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Itemizing means listing actual expenses like mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable gifts, and medical costs on Schedule A of Form 1040.
The 2026 Standard Deduction: The Number to Beat
Your standard deduction is a flat amount subtracted from your income with zero documentation required. For tax year 2026:1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026, Including Amendments From the One, Big, Beautiful Bill
- Single or married filing separately: $16,100
- Married filing jointly or surviving spouse: $32,200
- Head of household: $24,150
Roughly nine out of ten taxpayers take the standard deduction because their itemizable expenses don’t exceed these thresholds, especially after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the higher standard deduction amounts permanent. If your qualifying expenses total less than the standard deduction for your filing status, itemizing costs you money in time spent for no tax benefit.
Extra Amounts for Seniors and Blind Filers
If you’re 65 or older or legally blind, you get an additional standard deduction on top of the base amount. These additions stack, so someone who is both 65 and blind gets both.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 63 – Taxable Income For 2025, the additional amount was $1,600 per qualifying condition for married filers and $2,000 for unmarried filers, with similar inflation-adjusted amounts expected for 2026.
The bigger change is the new enhanced deduction for seniors created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. For tax years 2025 through 2028, taxpayers age 65 and older can claim an extra $6,000 on top of both the base and the regular age-related addition. If both spouses on a joint return qualify, that’s $12,000.3Internal Revenue Service. Check Your Eligibility for the New Enhanced Deduction for Seniors A married couple who are both 65 could have a standard deduction above $47,000 for 2026, which makes it nearly impossible for most seniors to benefit from itemizing.
What You Can Actually Itemize
Four categories make up the bulk of itemized deductions. Each has its own rules and caps, and knowing them is the only way to tell whether your total clears the standard deduction threshold.
State and Local Taxes
You can deduct state and local income taxes (or general sales taxes, pick one), plus real estate and personal property taxes.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 164 – Taxes If you live in a state without an income tax, the sales tax option can matter; you can either track actual sales tax paid or use the IRS optional sales tax tables.5Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 503, Deductible Taxes
The combined cap, commonly called the SALT cap, is critical. From 2018 through 2025 it was locked at $10,000. For 2026 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act raised it to $40,000 (adjusted for inflation to $40,400), with a 1% annual increase through 2029 before reverting to $10,000 after that.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 164 – Taxes The deduction phases out for higher earners: if your modified adjusted gross income exceeds roughly $505,000, the cap is reduced by 30 cents for each dollar over that threshold, though it can’t drop below $10,000.
Mortgage Interest
You can deduct interest paid on mortgage debt used to buy, build, or substantially improve your primary home or a second home. For loans taken out after December 15, 2017, the deductible debt limit is $750,000, or $375,000 if married filing separately.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 163 – Interest Older loans from before that date still qualify under the previous $1,000,000 limit. If you refinanced an older loan, the higher cap applies only up to the balance you were carrying at the time of the refinance.
Second-home interest follows the same rules as your primary residence, but the $750,000 cap applies to the combined debt on both properties.7Internal Revenue Service. Real Estate (Taxes, Mortgage Interest, Points, Other Property Expenses)
Charitable Contributions
Donations to qualifying nonprofits are deductible if you keep proper records.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 170 – Charitable, Etc., Contributions and Gifts Cash gifts need a bank record or written receipt from the charity, and contributions of $250 or more require a written acknowledgment from the organization itself. Property donations are deductible at fair market value.
There are caps tied to your adjusted gross income. Cash contributions to most public charities can’t exceed 60% of your AGI.9Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contribution Deductions Contributions to private foundations and certain other organizations face a lower 30% cap. Amounts over the limits can be carried forward for up to five years.
Medical and Dental Expenses
Medical costs are deductible only to the extent they exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, and only expenses not reimbursed by insurance count.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 213 – Medical, Dental, Etc., Expenses That floor makes the deduction hard to reach without a major medical event. Someone with an AGI of $80,000 would need more than $6,000 in unreimbursed medical costs before a single dollar becomes deductible.
The category is broader than most people realize. It includes out-of-pocket health insurance premiums, long-term care services, medically necessary home modifications like wheelchair ramps and grab bars, and transportation to medical appointments (21 cents per mile for 2025, with a similar rate expected for 2026). Lodging during medical travel is deductible up to $50 per night per person. Meals during medical travel are not.11Internal Revenue Service. Publication 502, Medical and Dental Expenses
Running the Comparison
Add up your expected expenses across the four categories, then compare that total to your standard deduction. Higher total: itemize. Lower: standard. There’s no strategic reason to itemize when it produces a smaller deduction; you’d pay more tax and do more paperwork.
The 2026 SALT cap increase to $40,400 changes this calculation for many homeowners. Someone in a high-tax state who pays $15,000 in state income tax and $12,000 in property tax was previously capped at $10,000 total. Now they can deduct the full $27,000. Add mortgage interest and charitable contributions, and filers who’ve been taking the standard deduction since 2018 may find that itemizing works again.
Here’s a rough example for a married couple filing jointly in 2026. They pay $18,000 in state and local taxes, $9,000 in mortgage interest, and donate $4,000 to charity. That’s $31,000 in itemized deductions, still below the $32,200 standard deduction, so they take the standard deduction. Change the SALT payments to $25,000 with the same mortgage interest and giving, and their itemized total hits $38,000; itemizing saves them roughly $1,740 in the 24% bracket compared to the standard deduction. Run your own numbers every year, because both your expenses and the IRS limits shift.
The administrative burden of itemizing is real. You need documentation for everything: canceled checks, credit card statements, receipts, written acknowledgments from charities.12Internal Revenue Service. About Schedule A (Form 1040), Itemized Deductions Professional tax preparation with itemized deductions typically costs $300 to $800, compared to simpler returns. If the tax savings barely exceed the preparation cost, the standard deduction may still be the better call.
Bunching If You’re Close to the Line
If your itemizable expenses land right around the standard deduction threshold, bunching can tip the math in your favor. Concentrate two years’ worth of deductible expenses into one tax year, itemize that year, and take the standard deduction the next.
Charitable giving is the easiest expense to bunch because you control the timing. If you normally donate $5,000 per year, make two years’ worth of contributions in a single year (so $10,000), pushing your itemized total above the standard deduction. The following year, with no charitable deductions, you take the standard deduction. Over two years, your total deductions come out higher than if you’d taken the standard deduction both years.
A donor-advised fund makes this especially clean. You contribute a lump sum to the fund and claim the full tax deduction immediately, then recommend grants to your chosen charities over several years. Property tax prepayments and elective medical procedures are other expenses that can sometimes be timed to support a bunching strategy.
When You Don’t Get a Choice
Most filers freely pick between the two methods, but one situation forces your hand. If you’re married filing separately and your spouse itemizes, you must also itemize even if you have nothing to deduct. Your standard deduction drops to zero.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 63 – Taxable Income This prevents one spouse from claiming the standard deduction while the other takes all the itemized deductions. Coordinate before either of you files.
Nonresident aliens and anyone filing a return that covers fewer than 12 months due to an accounting period change are also ineligible for the standard deduction.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 63 – Taxable Income And if someone else claims you as a dependent, your standard deduction shrinks to the greater of $1,350 or your earned income plus $450, capped at the normal standard deduction for your filing status.
Records If You Itemize
If you itemize, the IRS expects you to back up every line on Schedule A. Keep records for at least three years from the date you filed the return.13Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records That extends to six years if you underreported income by more than 25% of your gross income, and to seven years if you claimed a loss from worthless securities or bad debt. For property-related deductions like the cost basis of a home, keep records until at least three years after you sell the property. A scanned digital folder organized by tax year is much easier to produce than a shoe box if the IRS asks. The standard deduction’s underrated benefit is that it makes the whole filing cabinet unnecessary.