If we have enough deductions to justify itemizing instead of taking the standard deduction.
I haven’t had a need to itemize in several years.
That’s not nearly as much of a perk as people make it out to be. It’s good for a couple of years when you’re mostly paying interest, but it’s really not much.
Remember, a deduction is just removing the expense from your taxable income. It’s not like we get that back from taxes…that’d be a credit.
So if I pay $5000 in interest over the course of the year, im not getting $5k back on my taxes. We just pretend my gross income is $5k less. And most the time, the standard deduction ends up being more anyway.
Most W2 workers take standard deduction. You aren’t missing anything.
My primary income is W2, but I have a 1099 side gig (teaching scuba and underwater photography at a university) that usually results in me itemizing mostly because my gear is stupid expensive and I rarely make an actual profit. The write-offs are enough to let me justify spending the money on the gear to help me break even while teaching.
I do multi-year write-offs on the big-ticket items, because one underwater camera rig (camera, housing, strobes, wet-lenses, etc) costs what I make teaching underwater photography across 4-6 semesters.
I think the last time I itemized was when I was doing some 1099 work, plus changed jobs, changed employment state, sold a house in one state and bought one in another.
If we have enough deductions to justify itemizing instead of taking the standard deduction.
I haven’t had a need to itemize in several years.
That’s not nearly as much of a perk as people make it out to be. It’s good for a couple of years when you’re mostly paying interest, but it’s really not much.
Remember, a deduction is just removing the expense from your taxable income. It’s not like we get that back from taxes…that’d be a credit.
So if I pay $5000 in interest over the course of the year, im not getting $5k back on my taxes. We just pretend my gross income is $5k less. And most the time, the standard deduction ends up being more anyway.
Most W2 workers take standard deduction. You aren’t missing anything.
My primary income is W2, but I have a 1099 side gig (teaching scuba and underwater photography at a university) that usually results in me itemizing mostly because my gear is stupid expensive and I rarely make an actual profit. The write-offs are enough to let me justify spending the money on the gear to help me break even while teaching.
I do multi-year write-offs on the big-ticket items, because one underwater camera rig (camera, housing, strobes, wet-lenses, etc) costs what I make teaching underwater photography across 4-6 semesters.
Aren’t business expenses normally filed under schedule C if youre a sole owner?
I think the last time I itemized was when I was doing some 1099 work, plus changed jobs, changed employment state, sold a house in one state and bought one in another.
It was a complicated tax year.
Itemizing stopped being beneficial for me when they capped the mortgage interest deduction at $10K.