Standard vs. itemized deduction in 2026: how to choose

Every return makes one quiet choice before the tax is figured: take the standard deduction, or add up your itemized deductions and take that instead. You get one or the other, not both. Most people take the standard deduction, and for most people that's the right call. But "most people" is not a reason. This page gives the 2026 numbers, the itemized deductions that can beat them, and a worked comparison you can copy.

The rule in one sentence

You itemize, on Schedule A of Form 1040, when your allowable itemized deductions are greater than your standard deduction. ¹ Itemizing is an election you make on the return; if you don't make it, no itemized deductions are allowed. ² So the job is simple to state: total both sides, then pick the bigger one.

The 2026 standard deduction

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Age 65 or blind. Each condition adds an amount on top: $2,050 if you're unmarried and not a surviving spouse, or $1,650 per condition if you're married or a surviving spouse. Someone who is both 65 and blind gets it twice. ³ The IRS treats you as 65 on the day before your 65th birthday, and both tests are measured on the last day of the year. ⁴

If someone can claim you as a dependent. Your standard deduction is limited to the greater of $1,350 or your earned income plus $450, and never more than the regular amount for your status. ³ This is the rule that catches students with a summer job. A limited standard deduction is also one of the reasons the IRS gives for looking at itemizing. ¹

When it is zero. If you're married filing separately and your spouse itemizes, your standard deduction is zero, so you itemize too. ⁴ Nonresident aliens, and short-period returns from a change in accounting period, also can't use it. ² This is the one place where the choice isn't yours alone: two spouses filing separately are tied together.

What goes on the itemized side

The itemized schedule has several lines. These are the ones that usually decide the comparison.

State and local taxes (SALT)

State and local income tax (or sales tax instead), plus real estate and personal property taxes, are added together and capped. For 2026 the cap is $40,400, or $20,200 if married filing separately. ⁵

Higher incomes get a smaller cap. The cap is reduced by 30% of the amount by which modified AGI exceeds $505,000, but the reduction can't take the cap below $10,000. ⁵ Under the statute as written, the larger cap is temporary: it rises a little each year and then drops back to the floor amount for years after 2029. ⁵

Mortgage interest

Interest on debt used to buy, build or substantially improve your main home or second home is deductible, on up to $750,000 of that debt for loans taken out after December 15, 2017 (half that if married filing separately). ⁶ Older loans can sit under a higher limit. Home equity interest counts only if the money went into buying, building or substantially improving the home that secures the loan. ⁶

Medical and dental expenses

You deduct only the part of unreimbursed medical and dental costs that exceeds 7.5% of your AGI. ⁷ That floor is why medical costs rarely matter in an ordinary year and can matter a lot in a hard one: a surgery, a long hospital stay, nursing home care.

Charitable gifts

From 2026, an itemizer's charitable gifts count only to the extent they exceed 0.5% of the contribution base, which is essentially AGI. ⁸ The floor is small, but it comes off the top of every itemizer's giving.

The side door for non-itemizers

Starting with tax year 2026, people who take the standard deduction can also deduct cash gifts to charity, up to $1,000, or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly. ⁹ It's cash only. Gifts of clothing, stock or other property don't qualify, and neither do gifts to donor-advised funds or supporting organizations. ⁹ The law lists it as something a non-itemizer subtracts in figuring taxable income, alongside the standard deduction. ²

That changes the comparison a little. Giving no longer pushes you toward itemizing the way it used to, because a non-itemizer now gets some credit for cash gifts too. The charitable giving article walks through the floor and the side door in more detail.

How to compare your own year

• Start with SALT and mortgage interest. For most people who itemize, these two lines carry the total.
• Apply each floor before adding. Medical and charity are both reduced by a slice of AGI first.
• Check the dependent rule if anyone can claim you, and the married-filing-separately rule if you and your spouse file apart.
• Look past this year. If you're close to the line, timing matters. Paying a bill in December or January moves it between years. The year-end checklist covers which moves need to happen before December 31.