itemized deductions

When it comes to claiming deductions on your federal income tax return, a deduction is a deduction, right? Not exactly. Believe it or not, all deductions are not equal come tax time. Some deductions are bigger bangs for the buck than others. Here's a quick guide to figuring out which tax deductions...

Around tax time, many taxpayers struggle with whether it makes sense to itemize. The answer is almost always purely financial. In most cases, you will opt to itemize deductions if the total of those deductions is larger than your standard deduction. For the tax year 2010, the standard deduction...

Now that the tax deal is done, we can all breathe a sigh of relief and start thinking about the upcoming tax-filing season, right? Not so fast. Since Congress waited so long to ink the final deal -- in the form of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act...

It's rare that the decision to itemize or take the standard deduction hinges on some of the smaller deductions that you can claim on your federal form 1040, Schedule A. This is because the deduction thresholds are fairly high. For 2010, the standard deduction for married couples filing a joint...

If you keep good records, deductions can be a great way to reduce your taxable income. Increasing your allowable deductions means the less tax you owe and the more money you get to keep. To maximize your deductions, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with tax rules -- there are likely many...

Each year, taxpayers have the option of claiming the standard deduction or the itemized deduction. For the tax year 2010, the standard deduction remains unchangedat $5,700 for single taxpayers or for those married filing separately; it also remains unchanged for married taxpayers or qualifying...

Less than a week after the midterm elections, politicians and special interest groups are both plotting their next moves. With an overwhelming majority of voters citing the economy as the deciding factor in the election, both parties realize that some kind of change is inevitable for the coming...

The national unemployment rate stands at a whopping 10% -- higher than it has been for years. Despite all the talk in Washington about creating new jobs, the outlook is pretty scary: When the economy was recovering from the 2001 recession, it took two years to reduce the unemployment rate by nearly...

If you itemize your deductions, you can deduct home mortgage interest on Schedule A of Form 1040. Qualified mortgage interest includes interest on a loan secured by your main home or second home. The loan can be a mortgage or a home equity loan.In order for you to deduct the interest, though, you...

It's no secret that parts of our horribly complicated tax code have been invented (in part) to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. One of the "encouraged" behaviors is home ownership.Along with home ownership comes the potential to itemize your deductions on your personal income tax return,...