Itemized vs Standard Deduction Calculator

Every year you choose between the standard deduction, a flat amount the IRS hands you for nothing, and itemizing, which means listing what you actually spent on a Schedule A. You take whichever is bigger. There is no third option and no partial credit.

The decision formula: Tax Saved = (Larger Deduction − Smaller Deduction) × Your Marginal Tax Rate

Note that this compares the difference, not the whole deduction. Itemizing $21,600 against a $16,100 standard deduction does not save you $21,600 worth of anything. It saves you the tax on the extra $5,500, because you were getting the first $16,100 either way.

2026 standard deduction:

Add $1,550 per person if you are 65 or older or legally blind, or $1,250 per person if married. Both conditions can apply to the same person, so a blind 70-year-old single filer adds $3,100.

The SALT cap changed, and most articles still have the old number. The state and local tax deduction, which covers property tax plus either income tax or sales tax, was capped at $10,000 from 2018 through 2024. The 2025 tax law raised it to $40,000 for 2025 and $40,400 for 2026, rising 1% a year through 2029 and then dropping back to $10,000 in 2030.

There is a claw-back at the top. Above $505,000 of income in 2026 the cap shrinks by 30 cents for every dollar over, though it never falls below $10,000. That creates a nasty band where an extra dollar of income costs you well over its own marginal rate.

This one change is why itemizing is worth rechecking even if you gave up on it years ago. A household in New Jersey or California paying $25,000 of property and state income tax went from $10,000 of deduction to the full $25,000.

The rest of Schedule A:

• Mortgage interest, from the Form 1098 your lender sends. Limited to the interest on the first $750,000 of loans taken out after December 2017, or $1,000,000 for older ones.
• Charitable contributions, capped at 60% of adjusted gross income for cash gifts.
• Medical expenses, but only the part above 7.5% of AGI. On a $75,000 income that means the first $5,625 is invisible, which is why almost nobody claims it.
• Casualty losses from federally declared disasters.

Worked example, single filer in the 22% bracket:

• Mortgage interest: $9,200
• State and local taxes: $10,000
• Charitable donations: $2,400
• Total itemized: $21,600 against a $16,100 standard deduction
• Extra deduction: $5,500, worth $1,210 at 22%

Now raise the state and local taxes to $25,000, which is ordinary for a $600,000 house in a high-tax county. Under the old cap that made no difference at all. Under the 2026 cap the total becomes $36,600, the extra deduction is $20,500, and it is worth $4,510.

When the standard deduction still wins: you rent, you live somewhere with low property tax, or your giving is modest. Roughly nine in ten filers took the standard deduction after the 2017 law doubled it, and even with the higher SALT cap most still will.