Yeah, ever since the code change we've been standard. Makes for easy and efficient filings.
Federal Incomes Taxes- standard or itemized deductions
- Thread starter GON
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Hermann
Site Donor 2023
Did my taxes today. Used standard deduction for my whooping AGI of $4040
Used FreeTax.com linked through the MO Dept of Revenue so it was all free. Nice easy to use service. Recommended !
Most tax programs allow you to enter all the info and it will determine what's the most advantageous. But the standard deduction is always the minimum, so you can't get in trouble for picking that over itemized. I'd think that if someone did it by hand, itemized, and mistakenly deducted less than the standard deduction, the IRS would correct it. I've had a few things in my favor that were automatically done by the IRS, like a tax credit that I didn't think I was eligible for. I ended up with a nice check from the Treasury.
Concerning charitable contributions, would you have any idea of the amount where itemized becomes favorable over standard deduction? Been leaning into T2T pretty hard last couple of years.
Edit: Never mind. Stupid question, as the donation amount is direct related to income (AGI).
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We have a tax guy who runs some quick numbers and tells us what is best. Usually standard is the most advantageous. We’ll be starting the process sometime this month.
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Yep. As long as someone isn't itemizing, there is no reason a person should have to do anything with their taxes. The government already has all of the info and already knows how much they owe you, or how much you owe them.
It could very much be an automatic process by default, unless someone wished to chose otherwise. The reason it's not like that is because the tax return companies got together and spent huge money lobbying for it to not be.
Always itemize, always owe, make quarterly payments, at least 10% to charity, I own a consulting business (to pursue hobby), wife is a retired CPA, and we always consult with a tax attorney (friend).
I use the h&r block software, used to be called tax cut I think. We don't own a lot, and all that we do is paid off. So itemization doesn't really work for us even though I test it every year. We go with the standard deduction.
freetaxusa.com in use for a decade
free to use, everything is online for both online filing and payments/refunds
works well in combination with eftps.gov for estimated tax payments during the year
last decade std deduction worked best
free to use, everything is online for both online filing and payments/refunds
works well in combination with eftps.gov for estimated tax payments during the year
last decade std deduction worked best
Been using TurboTax for at least 10 years. Kind of weird not having to enter mortgage interest deduction anymore, but it did make it simple. I have no other deductions other than sales tax on the new car last May, so it went quickly.
I have been preparing taxes as a professional for close to 50 years. Back in the paper and pencil days you had to make a choice. Now the software automatically goes with the method that gets the best result. In order to itemize I may have to make an override selection to itemize when the standard deduction is better. There are a few circumstances when it is required. Since Arizona allows a partial charitable contribution deduction even if you do not itemize, filling out Sch A automatically transfers that amount the Arizona charity worksheet.
TurboTax is limited in value if your knowledge of tax law is limited.
No one should ever avoid itemizing out of fear of IRS. Make sure your deductions are documented and enter them without fear.
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Recommend FreeTaxUSA or just IRS DirectFile if your State participates.
TurboTax is always trying to upsell people who have simple returns and almost never get audited. They try to sell an audit defense product that most people don't need. Most people who just forget a tax form or something might get a CP2000 letter which is easy to correct. Either sign it and pay it, or request a meeting.
We use the standard deduction. Due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the standard deduction is so large and SALT has been capped so that most people who aren't wealthy shouldn't itemize. Did you have a ton of medical bills or some sort of unusual situation?
If the tax law changes and SALT deduction limits go up, more people would itemize.
Yes, you can avoid the $14.99 State filing fee by just e-filing your federal return if your State has a free file system of its own, like MyTaxIllinois. It's very easy to use MyTaxIllinois as soon as you have your federal tax filing to go from.
On this topic, I always found it funny how people carelessly fork over several $100 on an accountant who then just plugs their info into their SW and takes the standard deduction to collect their fee 
Our federal income tax (the actual amount of income tax for the 2024 year) wasn't much over $100 this tax season (2025).On this topic, I always found it funny how people carelessly fork over several $100 on an accountant who then just plugs their info into their SW and takes the standard deduction to collect their fee
We have a very unusual tax situation which lets me legitimately deduct it to almost nothing. I think last tax season it worked out to less than $50.
So the "tax person" would be more expensive than the tax.
Anyway, H&R Block got me dad really bad. They didn't deduct his Illinois income tax from his Indiana returns and so they cost him thousands of dollars over several years. So you may pay someone who is only a temp and who doesn't know how to use the software.
Then I ended up doing my mom's taxes so she would quit paying that retired IRS person. Then she told some friends at church so I ended up doing theirs too.
This is going to turn into that scene from The Shawshank Redemption with the guards lining up outside Andy's office.
On this topic, I always found it funny how people carelessly fork over several $100 on an accountant who then just plugs their info into their SW and takes the standard deduction to collect their fee
It depends on how complex a person’s tax return in.
Not all accountants are the same in terms of know the tax codes from the Big Man.
I'm not filing until the very last minute now that there are potential national security issues. I would suggest others to reconsider as well. To those who think its safer to do it now vs later, that is a risk in itself, but I'm going to gamble that it gets resolved around that time.
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