Our Biggest Income Tax Deductions
Tip It!About two weeks ago I sat down with Turbo Tax and did a quick run-through to see roughly where we stand with regard to income taxes. While I’ve written previously about common income tax deductions, as well commonly missed income tax deductions, today I though I’d share our biggest income tax deductions.
1. Charitable contributions (cash)
2. Mortgage interest
3. State income taxes
4. Property taxes
5. Charitable contributions (non-cash)
Note: I didn’t include retirement contributions because those are technically “adjustments.”
Given that we just refinanced our mortgage, I expect our mortgage interest deduction to be much less significant next year, but our other deductions will likely hold steady or increase.
What about you? What are your top income tax deductions?
Published on February 15th, 2008 - 15 Comments
Filed under: Taxes
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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February 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Ours were similar, just in a different order:
1. Mortgage Interest (combined)
2. Charitable Giving (cash)
3. Property Tax
4. State Income Tax Withholding
5. Charitable Giving (non-cash)
(I actually posted my preliminary tax numbers on my blog.)
This year we had far fewer things to give away than in years past… I think we’ve given away just about everything non-cash that we can without pulling things we currently use.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Ours were:
1. Cash charitable contributions
2. Mortgage interest
3. Property Tax
4. State and local sales tax (I’m in Texas, so no income tax here)
5. Non-cash charitable contributions
February 15th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Ours were similar.
1 – Mortgage interest (due to having two homes for part of the year)
2 – Charitable contributions (cash)
3/4 – State taxes/Property tax (don’t recall the exact numbers off the top of my head but they are close to equal)
February 15th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Similar, but my real estate taxes are higher than my mortgage interest because I’m approaching the end of my mortgage.
Interestingly, without the charitable contributions, I’d be taking the standard deduction. Similarly, without the mortgage interest (if my house were paid off), I’d be taking the standard deduction.
I also got to take residental energy credits this year, which saved me more taxes than any of the above (though not more than all of the above).
February 15th, 2008 at 10:48 am
We live in Westchester County New York so property tax (#1) and mortgage interest (close #2) blow away any other deductions. Non-cash and cash charitable contributions are pretty close for #3 and #4.
February 15th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Standard deduction.
February 15th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
1. Mortgage interest (second year of 30-year mortgage)
2. Property taxes
3. Charitable donation (cash)
4. Charitable donation (noncash)
My charitable donations increased from the year before, but I see I have far to go.
February 15th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
CF, I also live in Westchester. I have no mortgage, so mine are State income taxes, property taxes, charitable contributions (cash), charitable contributions (non-cash).
February 15th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
“We live in Westchester County New York so property tax (#1) and mortgage interest (close #2) blow away any other deductions”
“CF, I also live in Westchester”
..ex-Mount Kisco-ite here.
Thank goodness no more “never saw a tax they didn’t like’ NY. Visiting is so much nicer than living there. Still love NY/NYS/NYC despite it all.
February 15th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Our top 5 were”
1. Mortgage interest
2. Medical expenses
This has been 1 or 2 for three years
It probably will be for 2008 & 2009 too
3. State taxes
4. Property taxes
5. Charity
February 16th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
” “never saw a tax they didn’t like’ NY”
LOL – love this line. I am in Mt Kisco, btw. The town is in constant need of money to do whatever they want to waste money on. Like remodeling the area round the train station and puting a 50K clock there, after all it is “the face of the town”. Like Mt Kisco is a tourist attraction or the tired commuters with NYC really care.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
ours is charitable contributions… and it is good to see that so many other people have that as a decent sized deduction. I am a firm believer that what goes around comes around. I have seen it happen in my life very often…
February 17th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Purchased a Toyota Scion in Feb 08 can we deduct the sales tax on it?
January 18th, 2010 at 10:22 am
i want to no if i pay for a ride to work can i claim that
January 18th, 2010 at 10:23 am
i want to no if i pay for a ride to work can i claim that on my taxes