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.
Itemizing stopped being beneficial for me when they capped the mortgage interest deduction at $10K.
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.
It was a complicated tax year.
Aren’t business expenses normally filed under schedule C if youre a sole owner?