February 13, 2014

How Many People Claim Itemized Deductions? What and How Much Do People Deduct?


I got the data from IRS taxstats.  The most recent data on Tax stats site is from 2011.    Specifically Individual Complete Report (Publication 1304), Table 2.1

46,293,834 returns claimed itemized deductions in 2011.  

If you add it all up, theres over $1.2 trillion in itemized deductions.  

If the 46 million filers instead claimed a $6100 single deduction they'd have $282 B in deductions and its likely more than that since many itemizers are married or heads of households.    The standard deductions would be somewhere between $282B and $564B.

Over 2/3 of the amount deducted is for taxes and homeownership.   I broke down the total deductions into major categories and here's how they stack up :




I put the deduction for real estate property taxes into its own category of home/tax as its both a homeowner related deduction and a tax deduction.


Here's the break down first ranked by the total people claiming the deduction  :


deduction # returns $ billion
Real estate
taxes
40.1 $173
Home mortgage interest 36.0 $364
Cash
contributions
34.6 $139
state/local income tax 33.7 $266
Other than cash
contributions
22.5 $44
Tax preparation
fees
22.1 $7
Personal property
taxes
19.9 $8
Unreimbursed employee
business expenses
14.7 $77
state/local sales tax 10.9 $16
Medical and dental expenses deduction 10.4 $44
Other limited
miscellaneous deductions  
7.9 $38
Qualified mortgage
insurance premiums
4.5 $5
Deductible points 2.7 $1
Other
taxes
2.6 $2
Investment interest
expense deduction
1.5 $13
Gambling loss
deduction
0.9 $18
Miscellaneous deductions
other than gambling
0.4 $2

And next sorted based on the dollar value of the total amount deducted :



deduction # returns $ billion
Home mortgage interest 36.0 $364
state/local income tax 33.7 $266
Real estate
taxes
40.1 $173
Cash
contributions
34.6 $139
Unreimbursed employee
business expenses
14.7 $77
Medical and dental expenses deduction 10.4 $44
Other than cash
contributions
22.5 $44
Other limited
miscellaneous deductions  
7.9 $38
Gambling loss
deduction
0.9 $18
state/local sales tax 10.9 $16
Investment interest
expense deduction
1.5 $13
Personal property
taxes
19.9 $8
Tax preparation
fees
22.1 $7
Qualified mortgage
insurance premiums
4.5 $5
Miscellaneous deductions
other than gambling
0.4 $2
Other
taxes
2.6 $2
Deductible points 2.7 $1




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