April 18th, the Tax Filing Deadline, is just around the corner and many Americans are scrambling to find legal tax deductions to help minimize the tax bite from 2015. Clearly, most tax planning needs to start well before now, but recently Kiplinger has put out a list of the 15 most overlooked tax deductions.
1. State sales taxes
In the past, taxpayers have had the choice of deducting whatever they pay in state sales taxes or state income taxes from their federal returns, but this option expired not too long ago. In December, Congress actually made the choice permanent and approved a retroactive deduction for 2015 taxes. The choice to select sales tax or income tax as a deduction is good, but it’s really good for those who have no state income tax.
2. Reinvested dividends
Don’t forget to boost the tax basis of mutual fund shares by the amount in each automatic reinvestment of dividends, as this will save you money at the time you redeem those shares, since it will mean you’re only paying capital gains taxes on those dividends once: at the time you cash in. Otherwise you could be paying taxes on the dividends twice: once when they’re issued, and again when you sell the shares in which they were reinvested.
3. Out-of-pocket charitable deductions
Most of us remember to gather receipts when charities come to your home to pick up goods, but maybe you forget that the cost of the ingredients in meals prepared for a homeless shelter or the pet food used in an animal rescue.
Kiplinger’s points out that if those costs top $250, you need a receipt from the charity in question — and if you drove your vehicle for a charity during the year, you can also deduct 14 cents per mile, as well as parking and tolls, for each trip.
4. Student loan interest paid by parents
Your kids get a benefit on this one: a deduction that might not have cost them anything. If you took out a loan for your child’s college education, they can deduct up to $2,500 of interest on student loans paid by you — as long as those students are not being claimed as dependents on your income taxes. The IRS treats that money as if it were given to the student, who then uses it to pay the debt. Parents can’t write it off, since they’re not liable for the debt — so don’t waste the deduction!
5. Job-hunting expenses
You can write off job-hunting expenses as miscellaneous expenses, if it’s not your first job, and the job you get is in the same field as the one you already have or have just left. You can use these deductions if you itemize, and you can only deduct those expenses to the extent that your total miscellaneous expenses top 2% of your adjusted gross income. You didn’t get the job? Don’t worry, you can still use the deductions.
6. Moving expenses to take your first job
If your first job is at least 50 miles away from your old home, you can deduct your moving expenses — and you don’t have to itemize to do it.
Not only can you deduct the cost of getting your household goods to the new area, your mileage — if you drove yourself — is also deductible, at 23 cents per mile, along with parking and tolls.
7. Military reservists’ travel expenses
Members of the military reserve are entitled to deduct the cost of getting to and from drills or meetings — as long as those drills or meetings are more than 100 miles from home and will keep them away from home overnight. In that case, they can not only write off lodging and meals, but also costs for driving there and back — to the tune of 57.5 cents per mile, plus parking and tolls. And they don’t have to itemize to do it.
8. Deduction of Medicare premiums for the self-employed
If you’ve qualified for Medicare but still run your own business, you can deduct Medicare Part B and Part D premiums, as well as the cost of supplemental Medicare (medigap) policies or the cost of a Medicare Advantage plan. You can’t do this if you’re also covered by an employer-subsidized plan or your spouse’s employer’s plan, those eligible to claim the deduction don’t have to worry about qualifying under the 7.5% of AGI test that applies to itemized medical expenses for those age 65 and older.
9. Child care credit
If you are paying for child care while you work, you can qualify for a tax credit worth between 20% and 35% of what that care costs. You can’t do this if you pay child care expenses through a child care reimbursement account at work, unless you run through the $5,000 that a reimbursement plan covers. If, for instance, your account only covers the $5,000, but you have two kids under 13 in care and pay up to $6,000 for their care, you can claim the tax credit for the additional $1,000 — just not on the original $5,000. But that amount is already in pretax dollars, so you still make out.
10. Estate tax on income in respect of a decedent
Say you inherited an IRA from someone whose estate was large enough to cause the federal estate tax to kick in. If the IRA totaled $100,000, and its inclusion in the estate of the person who left it to you increased the estate tax bill by $40,000, you can deduct that $40,000 on your tax bills as you take money out of that IRA.
A $50,000 withdrawal, for instance, would allow you to claim a deduction of $20,000 on Schedule A, thus saving you $5,600 if your own income is in the 28% bracket.
11. State tax paid last spring
If you had to pay your home state additional income tax when you filed last spring, remember to include that additional tax in the state tax deduction on this year’s federal return — along with any state income taxes withheld from your paychecks or that you paid in quarterly estimated taxes during the course of the year.
12. Refinancing points
Buying a house gets you the chance to deduct whatever points you had to pay to get the mortgage. While you can’t do that if you refinance, you can still deduct the points over the life of the loan (for instance, 1/30th of the points annually for a 30-year mortgage). It may not be as big a chunk of a deduction as the one you get while buying outright, but it’s still worth using.
If you sell or refinance again, you can deduct whatever’s left all in that one year — unless you used the same lender and refinanced. Then you have to stick with deducting both the old points and the new over the life of the new loan.
13. Jury pay paid to employer
If you had to serve on jury duty and your employer insisted that, in exchange for continuing to pay your salary while you served, you had to turn your jury pay over to the company, you’re still considered by the IRS as receiving taxable income — the jury pay — and you have to report it. However, you get to deduct it so that you’re not paying taxes on money that your employer received. To do so, go to line 36 and add it into the other items that have to be totaled there — then write “jury pay” on the dotted line.
14. American Opportunity Credit
This is a credit that’s good for all four years of college, and it’s based on 100% of the first $2,000 that you spend on qualifying college expenses and 25% of the next $2,000, for a maximum annual credit per student of $2,500. The full credit is available as long as your modified adjusted gross income is $80,000 or less (for married couples filing jointly, $160,000).
Don’t worry if you didn’t pay enough taxes to use up the whole credit. In those cases, you’ll actually get a refund for the balance.
15. A college credit for those long out of college
The Lifetime Learning credit can get you up to $2,000 annually, based on 20% of up to $10,000 used for post-high-school courses used to bring new or better job skills — and that’s for you, not for your kids. Even if you’re retired and taking classes at a vocational school or community college, those count.
It’s income-dependent, of course, and phases out as your income increases from $55,000 to $65,000 (individual) or from $110,000 to $130,000 (couples filing jointly).
Commonwealth does not provide legal or tax advice. Please consult with a legal or tax professional regarding your individual situation.