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Since Trump's tax changes very few people itemize - it is very difficult to get about the standard deduction. The average person doesn't even have enough income (the standard deduction is about a third the average income, the odds that someone at that wage level is spending enough on deductible things is small, there are too many non-deductable things they also need to buy).

Of course it depends on where you live - in San Francisco if you can afford a house at all you have enough interest to deduct it (especially at today's rates), but other areas have more sane housing prices and lower incomes.



I forgot the standard deduction went up a lot.

I think you can still easily reach if you, say, tithe 5 or 10% of your (post-tax even!) income (to a church or other 501-c-3) and have a mortgage and pay property taxes in a major metropolitan area. (Also if you're single the standard deduction is half married filing jointly.) (I didn't realize the personal exemption is gone now too!!)

But a quick google says... according to the IRS in 2022, 139.2 out of 154.3 million tax returns took the standard deduction, which is indeed around 90%. (Looks like up from 87% in 2020 maybe). So, true, defintiely most people, but still 10% not.

It looks like maybe pre recent Trump standard deduction changes (which were phased in), as many as 30% of filers itemized. (Still a minority to be sure).

I wonder if charities have seen a big hit in donations, if the itemized deductions people are no longer taking were an incentive.


I don't know if they have but charities (nonprofits and churches) lobbied against increasing the standard deduction or to make an exception for charities. Which didn't happen. https://www.philanthropy.com/article/nonprofits-hunt-for-a-t...

I guess there was a $300 provision for charitable deductions enacted in 2020 that they are trying to make permanent and larger. Web site wasn't working for me but Google's cache did: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WdabFa...


The cash donations on top of the standard deductions phased out this year. This year, as far as I could tell, only way to deduct cash donations was itemizing.\

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/tax-deductible-dona...




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