Standard deduction or itemize: how to tell
What the standard deduction is worth for 2025, what itemizing on Schedule A actually counts, and the simple test that decides which one belongs on your return.
Quick answers
- Should I itemize or take the standard deduction?
- Take whichever total is larger. Add up your Schedule A categories — medical above the floor, state and local taxes up to the cap, mortgage interest and charitable gifts — and compare that with the standard deduction for your filing status.
- What can I deduct if I itemize?
- Medical expenses above a share of your adjusted gross income, state and local taxes up to the cap, home mortgage interest and points, gifts to charity, and casualty losses from a federally declared disaster. Schedule A is a fixed list.
- Can I deduct work expenses my employer did not reimburse?
- No. Unreimbursed employee expenses, tax preparation fees and investment fees are not deductible on Schedule A for 2025. If you remember deducting them, you are remembering a rule that changed.
You get one of the two, not both: a flat standard deduction set by your filing status, or the total of your itemized deductions on Schedule A. The answer is whichever total is larger, and for most households the standard deduction wins without a close call.
| Standard deduction, single | $15,750 | 2025 Instructions for Form 1040, Standard Deduction Chart |
|---|---|---|
| Standard deduction, married filing jointly | $31,500 | 2025 Instructions for Form 1040, Standard Deduction Chart |
| Standard deduction, head of household | $23,625 | 2025 Instructions for Form 1040, Standard Deduction Chart |
| Additional standard deduction, 65 or blind, single or HOH | $2,000 | 2025 Instructions for Form 1040, Standard Deduction Chart line 4b |
| Additional standard deduction, 65 or blind, married | $1,600 | 2025 Instructions for Form 1040, Standard Deduction Chart line 4b |
| State and local tax deduction cap | $40,000 | 2025 Instructions for Schedule A, SALT worksheet line 1 |
The standard deduction, and the additions
For 2025 the standard deduction is $15,750 for a single filer, $23,625 for head of household, and $31,500 for a married couple filing jointly. A married person filing separately gets $15,750.
Age and blindness add to it. If you were 65 or older at the end of the year, or you are blind, you add $2,000 if you are single or head of household, or $1,600 per qualifying spouse on a married return. The two additions stack, so someone who is both 65 or older and blind counts twice.
Two situations cut the standard deduction instead. Someone who can be claimed as another person's dependent uses a worksheet that usually produces a smaller figure, and a married person filing separately whose spouse itemizes gets no standard deduction at all.
What itemizing counts
Schedule A is a fixed list, not a place for general expenses. The categories that matter for most filers:
- Medical and dental expenses, but only the part above 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. Everything under that floor is ignored.
- State and local taxes, meaning income or sales taxes plus property taxes, capped at $40,000 for 2025, with the cap, the phase-down threshold and the floor each halved on a separate return. Above modified income of $500,000, or $250,000 on a separate return, the cap phases down at 30% of the excess, but it never falls below $10,000.
- Home mortgage interest and mortgage points reported to you on Form 1098, within the debt limits that apply to when the loan was taken out.
- Gifts to charity, cash and noncash, to qualifying organizations, subject to limits measured against your adjusted gross income and to substantiation rules that get stricter as the gift gets larger.
- Casualty and theft losses from a federally declared disaster, and a short list of other deductions named in the Schedule A instructions.
The 2025 twist worth knowing
Four deductions new for 2025 sit on Schedule 1-A rather than Schedule A: qualified tips, qualified overtime, car loan interest, and the enhanced deduction for people 65 and older. They are available whether you itemize or take the standard deduction, so they do not enter the comparison at all.
The practical effect is that taking the standard deduction no longer means giving up everything else. Each of the four has its own cap and its own income phase-out, and if you are married the tips, overtime, and senior deductions require a joint return.
The test
- Add up your Schedule A categories for the year: medical above the floor, state and local taxes up to the cap, mortgage interest, charitable gifts.
- Compare that total to the standard deduction for your filing status, including any age or blindness additions.
- Take the larger. If itemizing wins by a small margin, run it both ways, since itemizing also means keeping records that support every line.
The state and local tax cap is usually what decides it. A Houston household with property taxes, no state income tax, and a mortgage can land near the line, so it is worth totalling rather than assuming.
What to keep either way
Even when the standard deduction wins, keep the records for a year. Closing statements, Form 1098 for mortgage interest, property tax receipts, charitable acknowledgment letters, and medical bills all become relevant if something changes: a large medical year, a new mortgage, a major gift.
If you are close to the line, bring both totals to your preparer along with the underlying documents. The comparison itself is quick, and the part worth paying attention to is whether each itemized figure is one you can support.