Tax Deductions List: What You Can Actually Deduct in 2025 and 2026

Above-the-line deductions reduce your adjusted gross income directly. You get them on top of the standard deduction, no itemizing required, which makes them the most valuable kind of deduction on this page. The core list:

• HSA contributions. Up to $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for family coverage in 2026, plus a $1,000 catch-up at age 55 and older. You need a qualifying high-deductible health plan.
• Traditional IRA contributions. Up to $7,500 for 2026, plus a $1,100 catch-up at age 50 and older. Deductibility phases out if you or your spouse are covered by a workplace plan and income is above the thresholds.
• Student loan interest. Up to $2,500 of interest paid per return. For 2026 it phases out between $85,000 and $100,000 of modified AGI for single filers and $175,000 to $205,000 for joint filers.
• Educator expenses. Eligible K-12 educators can deduct classroom expenses above the line: $300 for 2025, rising to $350 for 2026. Starting in 2026, educators can also deduct additional unreimbursed classroom costs as an itemized deduction with no dollar cap.
• Self-employment deductions. If you work for yourself, three big above-the-line items stack here: half of your self-employment tax, self-employed health insurance premiums, and contributions to a solo 401(k) or SEP IRA. The full self-employed list is in Section 4.
• Charitable gifts for non-itemizers. New and permanent starting with 2026 returns: up to $1,000 of cash gifts to qualifying charities ($2,000 for joint filers) even if you take the standard deduction. Cash only, and gifts to donor-advised funds do not count.

The 2025 tax law created four temporary personal deductions plus the permanent charitable deduction for non-itemizers covered above. All of them work like above-the-line deductions in effect: you can claim them alongside the standard deduction. None of them touch payroll taxes, so Social Security and Medicare still come out of every dollar.

The fine print that trips people up:

• Tips must be voluntary, reported, and earned in an occupation the IRS lists as customarily tipped. The deduction shrinks by $100 for every $1,000 of modified AGI over the threshold.
• Overtime counts only the premium half of time-and-a-half required by federal law, not the whole overtime check. If your base rate is $30 and overtime pays $45, only the $15 premium per hour qualifies.
• Car loan interest requires a new personal-use vehicle with final assembly in the United States, a loan taken out after December 31, 2024, and a vehicle under 14,000 pounds. Used cars and leases do not qualify.
• The senior deduction is $6,000 per person age 65 or older ($12,000 if both spouses qualify) and stacks on top of the existing extra standard deduction for age 65+. It phases out at six cents per dollar of modified AGI above $75,000 single or $150,000 joint.

Itemized deductions only help if their total beats your standard deduction, because you pick one or the other. The big four:

• State and local taxes (SALT). State income or sales taxes plus property taxes, now capped at $40,000 for 2025 and $40,400 for 2026, up from the old $10,000 cap. The catch: the cap phases back down by 30% of modified AGI above $500,000 (2025) or $505,000 (2026), never below $10,000. At roughly $600,000 of income the old $10,000 cap is back. The higher cap runs through 2029, then reverts to $10,000.
• Mortgage interest. Deductible on up to $750,000 of acquisition debt for your main and second home ($375,000 married filing separately), a limit the OBBBA made permanent. Interest on home equity debt counts only if the money bought, built, or substantially improved the home.
• Charitable contributions. Cash gifts to public charities are deductible up to 60% of AGI. New for 2026: only the amount above 0.5% of your AGI counts. On $200,000 of AGI, the first $1,000 of giving earns you nothing.
• Medical expenses. Deductible only above 7.5% of AGI, a floor that is now permanent. On $150,000 of AGI you need more than $11,250 of unreimbursed medical costs before the first deductible dollar.
• Casualty and theft losses. Personal casualty losses are deductible only when they come from a federally declared disaster, and starting with 2026 tax years, certain state-declared disasters as well.

The itemize-or-standard framework

Three steps. First, total your capped SALT, mortgage interest, charitable gifts above the 0.5% floor, and medical costs above 7.5% of AGI. Second, compare that number to your standard deduction. Third, if the two are close, look at bunching: shifting two years of charitable gifts or a January property tax bill into one year so you itemize big in year one and take the standard deduction in year two.

If you have 1099 income, freelance work, or your own business, you get a second list of deductions that never touches the itemizing decision. These come off your business income on Schedule C before AGI is even calculated. The headline items:

• Home office: the simplified or actual-expense method for space used regularly and exclusively for business.
• Vehicle: the standard mileage rate or actual costs for business miles.
• Retirement plans: solo 401(k) or SEP IRA contributions, often the single largest deduction available.
• Health insurance: premiums for you and your family, above the line.
• Half of self-employment tax, plus equipment, software, supplies, professional fees, and business travel.
• The QBI deduction: up to 20% of qualified business income on top of everything else, now permanent under the OBBBA.

That is the summary. The line-by-line version, with worked examples and the audit traps, lives in our dedicated guide to 1099 tax deductions. And because every business deduction also reduces self-employment tax, run your numbers through the self-employment tax calculator to see the combined effect. Gig drivers have their own quirks; see gig driver tax deductions for mileage-first situations.

Rental property deductions are a third list, separate from both the personal and business lists above. They offset rental income on Schedule E whether or not you itemize. The core set: mortgage interest on the rental, property taxes on the rental (not subject to the SALT cap, because they are a rental expense rather than an itemized deduction), depreciation, repairs, insurance, property management, utilities you pay, and travel to the property.

Depreciation is the one that surprises new landlords: the building (not the land) deducts over 27.5 years even while the property appreciates. Short-term rental owners have a different set of rules and opportunities entirely; start with our Airbnb tax deductions guide. Farmers and ranch owners, see farm tax deductions.

Half the value of a good deductions list is knowing what is not on it. The most commonly attempted non-deductions:

• Commuting. Miles between home and your regular workplace are personal, no matter how long the drive. Business mileage starts after you reach work, or from a qualifying home office.
• Most work clothes. If you can reasonably wear it outside work, it is not deductible, even if you never would. Suits, scrubs bought for comfort, and business casual all fail. True uniforms and protective gear can qualify, but only for the self-employed now.
• Unreimbursed employee expenses. The 2017 suspension is now permanent under the OBBBA. W-2 employees cannot deduct home offices, tools, licenses, or union dues on their federal return, with the educator carve-out as the main exception.
• Personal interest. Credit card interest, personal loan interest, and interest on car loans that do not meet the new-vehicle US-assembly rules remain nondeductible.
• Gym memberships and general health costs. Staying healthy is not a medical expense. A membership only qualifies in narrow cases where a doctor prescribes it for a diagnosed condition, and even then it must clear the 7.5% AGI floor.
• Political contributions, homeowners association dues on your residence, and life insurance premiums on your own life.

If a deduction on this list is the difference-maker in your plan, the answer usually is not to force the deduction; it is to change the structure so the expense becomes legitimately deductible, which is a strategy conversation. Our guide on how to reduce taxable income covers the moves that actually work at each income level.