Most taxpayers no longer itemize. Since the standard deduction roughly doubled in 2018 and the state and local tax deduction was capped, the share of filers who itemize fell from about a third to under 10%. For 2025 returns filed in 2026, the standard deduction is $15,000 single, $30,000 married filing jointly, and $22,500 for heads of household. Unless your deductible expenses beat those numbers, itemizing is simply extra paperwork for a smaller result — you always take the larger of the two.
But the math still tips for specific people: homeowners paying meaningful mortgage interest, high earners in high-tax states now that the SALT cap rose to $40,000 under the 2025 tax law, and anyone who gives generously to charity. For those filers, itemizing can beat the standard deduction by thousands — and a timing strategy called bunching can recover deductions that would otherwise be wasted in years you fall just short. The decision is not a habit; it's an annual calculation.
The breakeven: add up Schedule A, compare to your standard deduction
The whole decision reduces to one comparison. Total your itemized deductions on Schedule A. If the sum exceeds your standard deduction, itemize. If not, take the standard deduction and move on. There is no partial credit and no penalty for taking the standard — it's the floor everyone is entitled to without records.
Tally deductible mortgage interest
From Form 1098 — interest on up to $750,000 of acquisition debt for loans taken after December 15, 2017 ($1 million for older loans).
Add state and local taxes, capped
Property tax plus the greater of state income tax or state sales tax, all capped at $40,000 for 2025 (much lower cap in prior years).
Add charitable contributions
Cash gifts to qualified charities (generally up to 60% of AGI) plus the fair market value of donated property, with receipts.
Add medical expenses above the floor
Only the portion of unreimbursed medical and dental costs that exceeds 7.5% of your adjusted gross income counts.
Compare the total to your standard deduction
Itemize only if the Schedule A total is larger. Otherwise the standard deduction wins.
For a married couple, the target is $30,000. A homeowner with $14,000 of mortgage interest, $9,000 of property and state tax, and $4,000 of giving lands at $27,000 — short of the standard deduction, so they take the standard. Nudge the giving to $8,000, or add a state income tax bill, and they clear the bar. Small differences in your facts flip the answer.
What still gets itemized after the recent tax changes
Not every old deduction survived. The 2017 law suspended miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to the 2% floor — unreimbursed employee expenses, tax-prep fees, investment expenses — through 2025. What remains are the four heavyweights below, and for most itemizers, mortgage interest plus SALT plus charity is the whole story.
| Deduction | 2026 rule of thumb | Where it's reported |
|---|---|---|
| Home mortgage interest | Interest on up to $750,000 of acquisition debt (post-2017 loans) | Schedule A, from Form 1098 |
| State and local taxes (SALT) | Property + income or sales tax, capped at $40,000 for 2025 | Schedule A |
| Charitable contributions | Cash up to 60% of AGI; property at fair market value | Schedule A, with receipts |
| Medical and dental | Only the amount above 7.5% of AGI | Schedule A |
| Miscellaneous 2% deductions | Suspended through 2025 | Not deductible |
MK Tax & Accounting is based in Oakland Park, Florida, and Florida has no state income tax — so a Florida itemizer's SALT deduction is mostly property tax plus the optional state sales tax figure. That means Floridians hit the old $10,000 cap far less often than residents of California or New York, and the new $40,000 cap gives ample room for most homeowners' property tax. The tradeoff: with no state income tax to deduct, Florida filers generally need strong mortgage interest or charitable giving to itemize at all.
When itemizing wins — and when it doesn't
Two households with identical incomes can land on opposite answers because the deductions are about what you spend, not what you earn. The clean way to see it is a side-by-side of the profiles that tend to clear the standard deduction versus those that rarely do.
Likely to itemize
- Homeowner with a large mortgage taken in the last several years
- High earner in a high-income-tax state (income tax fills the SALT cap)
- Significant charitable giver, especially in a single concentrated year
- Household with a year of high unreimbursed medical costs
- Filers who bunch multiple years of deductions into one
Likely to take the standard deduction
- Renters with no mortgage interest
- Filers in no-income-tax states with modest property tax
- Households with little or no charitable giving
- Anyone whose deductible expenses fall below the standard amount
- Filers who prefer no recordkeeping and clearly don't clear the bar
The honest answer for a majority of filers is that the standard deduction wins, and that's fine — it's a benefit, not a consolation prize. The point is to run the numbers rather than assume, because the households that do clear the bar leave real money on the table if they default to the standard.
Bunching: the strategy that recovers wasted deductions
The frustrating case is the filer who lands just under the standard deduction every year — say $26,000 of expenses against a $30,000 standard. Year after year, none of that giving or tax produces a marginal benefit, because the standard deduction would have been theirs regardless. Bunching fixes this by changing when you deduct, not how much.
- Concentrate two years of charitable gifts into a single year — give in December and again in January of the next calendar year, or fund a donor-advised fund with several years' worth at once
- In the bunched year, your itemized total clears the standard deduction and you itemize
- In the off years, you claim the full standard deduction with no records needed
- Where local rules allow, time property-tax payments to fall in the bunched year too
- Net result: you deduct more over the two-year cycle than by taking the standard every year
A donor-advised fund is the cleanest vehicle for this. You contribute — and deduct — a lump sum this year, then recommend grants to your favorite charities over the following years. The charities still receive steady support; you capture a large itemized deduction in the funding year and take the standard deduction in the years between.
Bunching only helps if you'd otherwise fall short of the standard deduction. If you clear it comfortably every year, keep giving annually and deduct as you go. Run a two-year projection before December — a quick model of "itemize this year, standard next year" versus "standard both years" shows exactly how much bunching is worth for your numbers, and whether it's worth the effort.
Records to keep if you itemize
Itemizing is a documentation game. The deduction is only as good as your ability to substantiate it if the IRS asks, and the substantiation rules are specific — a cancelled check isn't enough for larger gifts.
| Deduction | What to keep |
|---|---|
| Mortgage interest | Form 1098 from your lender |
| Property and state tax | Tax bills and proof of payment |
| Cash charitable gifts | Bank record or written acknowledgment; contemporaneous letter for gifts of $250+ |
| Non-cash gifts over $500 | Form 8283; qualified appraisal for property over $5,000 |
| Medical expenses | Bills, receipts, and mileage log for medical travel |
Don't itemize out of habit or skip it out of habit — decide it with arithmetic every year. Total your mortgage interest, capped SALT, charitable giving, and above-floor medical costs, then compare to your standard deduction ($15,000 single / $30,000 joint for 2025). If you clear the bar, itemize and keep clean records. If you land just short year after year, bunch two years of giving — ideally through a donor-advised fund — into one year to capture the deduction you'd otherwise waste, and take the standard deduction in between.
Find out which deduction actually wins for you
MK Tax & Accounting runs the breakeven for your real numbers, models a bunching strategy where it pays, and files Schedule A correctly so every deduction holds up. No guesswork, no wasted deductions.
Talk to a tax proSources
- IRS — Topic No. 501, Should I Itemize?
- IRS — Rev. Proc. 2024-40, 2025 Inflation-Adjusted Amounts (standard deduction)
- IRS — Publication 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction
- IRS — Publication 526, Charitable Contributions
- IRS — Schedule A (Form 1040) and Instructions
- One Big Beautiful Bill Act, P.L. 119-21 (2025) — SALT cap increase
Frequently asked questions
For 2025 returns (filed in 2026), the standard deduction is $15,000 for single filers, $30,000 for married filing jointly, and $22,500 for heads of household — indexed annually for inflation. You take the larger of the standard deduction or your total itemized deductions; you cannot use both.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (2025) raised the state and local tax deduction cap to $40,000 for 2025, up from the $10,000 limit that had applied since 2018, with a phase-down for very high incomes. The increase makes itemizing viable again for many filers in high-tax states — though Florida residents, with no state income tax, mostly deduct property tax under this cap.
The main itemized deductions are home mortgage interest, state and local taxes (up to the cap), charitable contributions, and medical expenses above 7.5% of adjusted gross income. Miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to the 2% floor — like unreimbursed employee expenses — remain suspended through 2025.
Bunching means concentrating two or more years of deductible expenses — usually charitable gifts and, where timing allows, property tax — into a single tax year so your itemized total clears the standard deduction that year, then taking the standard deduction in the off years. A donor-advised fund lets you bunch several years of giving into one deductible contribution while granting the money to charities over time.
