Common tax deductions you might miss — and exactly when each one applies to you.

First, the basics — itemise or take the standard deduction?

For tax year 2026 the standard deduction is roughly $14,600 for single filers and $29,200 for married couples filing jointly (adjusted annually for inflation). For most U.S. filers — over 85% — the standard deduction is larger than the sum of their itemisable deductions, and the right move is to take the standard and stop worrying about the rest.

The exceptions are clustered into a few familiar situations: filers with a mortgage and meaningful state income or property taxes (where the deduction stack quickly approaches and sometimes exceeds the standard), filers with very large charitable contributions in a single year, and filers with significant unreimbursed medical expenses. If none of those describe you, the standard deduction wins the comparison and you can skim the itemising section below.

Crucially, several of the most commonly missed deductions live above the line, which means they are available whether you itemise or not. Most filers who think they cannot benefit from the rest of this guide are wrong — the above-the-line deductions reduce your taxable income before the standard-versus-itemised choice ever applies.

Above-the-line deductions every filer should check

These deductions subtract from your gross income to arrive at your adjusted gross income (AGI). They are available without itemising and they directly reduce the income on which your federal tax is calculated. They are also the deductions our in-house return reviews most frequently catch missing.

• Traditional IRA contributions. Up to the annual limit ($7,000 for tax year 2026, $8,000 if you are 50 or older), traditional IRA contributions are deductible — subject to income phase-outs if you (or your spouse) are also covered by a workplace retirement plan. Even if a full deduction is not available, a partial deduction often is. Worth checking even if you contributed near the deadline.
• HSA contributions. Contributions to a Health Savings Account, by an eligible filer with a high-deductible health plan, are deductible up to the annual limit. The 2026 limits are $4,300 for self-only coverage and $8,550 for family coverage, with an additional $1,000 catch-up at age 55+. HSA contributions are one of the few tax breaks that survive both into retirement and through Medicare eligibility.
• Student-loan interest. Up to $2,500 per year, subject to a phase-out at moderate-to-high incomes. Available whether you itemise or not. The deduction applies to your own loans, your spouse's, or loans for dependents you claim — but the loan must be one you are legally obligated to pay.
• Educator expenses. If you are a K-12 teacher who paid for classroom supplies out of pocket, up to $300 ($600 if both spouses are eligible educators) is deductible above the line. This deduction is small but consistently missed.
• Self-employed retirement contributions. SEP-IRA, Solo 401(k), or SIMPLE-IRA contributions reduce taxable income directly. The contribution ceilings are dramatically higher than the standard IRA — covered in the self-employed section below.
• Self-employed health insurance. Premiums for medical, dental and qualified long-term-care insurance for yourself, your spouse and dependents are deductible above the line if you are self-employed and not eligible for an employer-sponsored plan.
• Alimony paid (for divorces finalised before 2019 only — post-2019 divorces no longer have an alimony deduction or inclusion).

Itemised deductions worth a careful look

If your itemisable deductions in total are likely to exceed the standard deduction, the categories below are where the additional value sits. Work through them in your tax software's itemising section; the program will compare the two paths and use whichever produces the lower tax.

• State and local taxes (SALT). State income tax (or sales tax — pick whichever is larger; sales tax matters for filers in states without an income tax) plus property tax, capped at $10,000 total ($5,000 if married filing separately). The SALT cap is the most-debated provision in the modern tax code and is the reason far fewer filers itemise than did before 2018.
• Mortgage interest. Interest on up to $750,000 of mortgage debt on your primary and one secondary residence ($375,000 if married filing separately) for mortgages taken out after late 2017. Older mortgages may qualify under prior, more generous limits.
• Charitable contributions. Cash and non-cash donations to qualifying 501(c)(3) organisations. Cash donations are typically deductible up to 60% of AGI; appreciated long-term assets (stocks, mutual funds) donated directly to a charity are deductible at fair market value and avoid the capital-gains tax on the appreciation. The second strategy is materially more efficient for filers with appreciated investments — and is one of the most consistently underused tax moves in the system.
• Medical expenses. Unreimbursed medical and dental expenses are deductible to the extent they exceed 7.5% of AGI. The threshold is high enough that most filers do not reach it, but filers with a major medical event in a single year — surgery, fertility treatment, long-term care — often clear it without realising.
• Casualty losses from federally declared disasters.

Deductions for self-employed filers

If you have any 1099-NEC or 1099-K income — or net self-employment income above $400 from any source — you have a Schedule C requirement, and the deductions available to you are dramatically broader than the W-2 list. The categories most commonly missed by part-time and full-time self-employed filers:

• Home office. If any part of your home is used regularly and exclusively for business, a portion of your rent or mortgage interest, utilities, insurance and depreciation is deductible. The simplified method ($5 per square foot, up to 300 sq ft) is fast but undervalues most genuine home offices; the actual-expense method takes about thirty minutes and typically surfaces more.
• Vehicle expenses. Standard mileage rate (around 67¢ per business mile for 2026) or actual expenses prorated by business-use percentage. Maintain a contemporaneous mileage log — reconstructed logs at year-end are weaker on audit.
• Phone and internet. The business-use percentage of both is deductible. For a freelancer working from home, that percentage is often higher than the cautious estimate most filers settle on.
• Software, subscriptions and professional development. Software licences, online tools, industry-specific subscriptions, conferences, courses, books, certifications — all deductible. This is the single largest under-counted category for knowledge-work freelancers in our reviews.
• Self-employed retirement. SEP-IRA contributions up to roughly 20-25% of net self-employment income, with a 2026 ceiling of $69,000. Solo 401(k) up to $23,000 plus a 25% employer match, also subject to the overall limit. These are dramatically higher than a standard IRA's $7,000 limit and represent the largest tax-deferral opportunity available to self-employed filers.
• Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction. Up to 20% of qualified net business income, subject to income phase-outs and trade-specific limits. For a freelancer with $80,000 of net Schedule C income and no other complications, the QBI deduction can be worth $16,000 of additional deduction. It is consistently the single largest deduction self-employed filers leave behind.

Credits — worth more than deductions, dollar for dollar

A $1,000 deduction saves you the tax on $1,000 of income — for most filers, somewhere between $120 and $370. A $1,000 credit saves you $1,000 of tax. The categories worth checking:

• Saver's Credit. Up to $1,000 ($2,000 if married filing jointly) for retirement contributions, available to filers with AGIs below specific thresholds. Most eligible filers miss it because the income limits are not advertised prominently.
• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Worth up to several thousand dollars for filers with low-to-moderate earned income, scaling with the number of qualifying dependents. The eligibility tests are non-trivial; every tax program walks through them, but it is worth verifying you were prompted.
• Child Tax Credit. $2,000 per qualifying child under 17, subject to income phase-outs.
• American Opportunity Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit. Education credits worth up to $2,500 and $2,000 respectively, for filers paying qualified tuition and fees. Income phase-outs apply.
• Residential Clean Energy Credit. A meaningful percentage of the cost of solar panels, solar water heating, geothermal pumps, fuel cells, and battery storage installed in a home. Long-lived credit that has been expanded and extended several times.
• Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit. Up to $3,200 per year for qualifying improvements (heat pumps, insulation, certain windows and doors). Worth checking for any home upgrade that touched the energy envelope.

What is no longer deductible (or never was)

A few deductions that older guides still mention are no longer available, and reading about them wastes time:

• Unreimbursed employee business expenses. Eliminated for W-2 employees from 2018 through at least 2025. If you pay for work-related items out of pocket and are reimbursed by your employer, the reimbursement is non-taxable; if you are not reimbursed, you can no longer deduct the expense as a W-2 employee. (This deduction remains available to self-employed filers via Schedule C.)
• Personal expenses dressed as business expenses. Commuting between home and work, clothing that could plausibly be worn outside work, meals where no specific business purpose is documented — these have never been deductible and remain off-limits.
• Tax preparation fees for individual returns (deductible only for self-employed filers as a business expense).

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