How Do Your Tax Deductions Stack Up?

Wonder how your itemized deductions compare with those of other filers? Check the averages in this table. It compares several key write-offs claimed by filers at various income levels, using IRS preliminary data from 2011 returns

Some things to keep in mind about the data: The Total Itemized Deductions column of the table includes miscellaneous itemized deductions plus any casualty and theft losses. The averages for taxes paid include taxpayers in states without an income tax who elect to deduct state sales tax, so the amount in the table may seem a bit low. The averages also include personal property taxes and real estate taxes.

And only medical expenses over 7.5% of AGI were deductible, so relatively few filers ended up taking the write-off. The figures above are the averages for those taxpayers.

From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance

Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just ~~$107.88~~ $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues

CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/y99mlvgqmn1763972420.png

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.

You won’t automatically be audited for having above-average deductions. The IRS knows that people living in states with high individual income tax rates claim larger state tax deductions than folks in states with low tax rates or no tax. And the agency matches mortgage interest deductions with 1098 forms from lenders.

But if your deductions are disproportionately large when compared with your income, your audit risk can go up because that’s a key factor in IRS’ return selection formula.

TOPICS

Joy is an experienced CPA and tax attorney with an L.L.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law. After many years working for big law and accounting firms, Joy saw the light and now puts her education, legal experience and in-depth knowledge of federal tax law to use writing for Kiplinger. She writes and edits The Kiplinger Tax Letter and contributes federal tax and retirement stories to kiplinger.com and Kiplinger’s Retirement Report. Her articles have been picked up by the Washington Post and other media outlets. Joy has also appeared as a tax expert in newspapers, on television and on radio discussing federal tax developments.