You take either the standard deduction or your itemised deductions, whichever is larger. For most people the standard deduction wins and the question never arises. For a minority it does not, and that minority is worth identifying properly rather than assuming.
Two rules change in 2026, both on charitable giving, and both change the answer people arrived at last year.
The 2026 standard deduction
For tax year 2026:
- 32,200 dollars if married filing jointly
- 16,100 dollars if single, or married filing separately
- 24,150 dollars if head of household
These are adjusted every year, so the figure is only ever right for the year it is stated against. Additional amounts apply for people who are 65 or older or blind.
Itemising is worth doing only when your itemised deductions add up to more than the relevant figure above. That is the entire test.
What actually goes on a Schedule A
The main items, and the limits that catch people:
State and local taxes. Income or sales tax, plus property tax, and the total is capped. For 2026 the limit is 40,400 dollars, or 20,200 dollars if married filing separately. The cap is reduced where modified adjusted gross income exceeds 505,000 dollars, or 252,500 dollars filing separately, but it does not fall below 10,000 dollars, or 5,000 dollars filing separately.
This is the item most often assumed to be unlimited. It is not, and it has not been for years, and at high incomes the cap tightens further.
Mortgage interest, subject to limits on the size of the loan and on what it was used for.
Medical and dental expenses, but only the part exceeding 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. On an income of 80,000 dollars, the first 6,000 dollars of medical cost produces no deduction at all. This is why medical expenses rarely help except in a genuinely exceptional year.
Charitable contributions, which is where 2026 differs from every recent year.
The two new charitable rules for 2026
If you itemise, there is now a floor. Beginning in 2026, charitable contributions are deductible only to the extent they exceed 0.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. Anything below that floor is not deductible at all.
On an income of 200,000 dollars, the first 1,000 dollars of giving produces nothing. That is a real change for people who give steadily in modest amounts, and it is a change in the opposite direction from the one most people expect.
If you do not itemise, there is now a deduction. Also beginning in 2026, cash contributions to eligible organisations can be deducted without itemising, up to 1,000 dollars, or 2,000 dollars for a married couple filing jointly.
Put together, these two move in opposite directions and redistribute who benefits from giving. A person taking the standard deduction now gets something for modest cash gifts where previously they got nothing. A person itemising loses the first slice of theirs.
Anyone who decided their giving strategy against last year’s rules should look at it again.
Who should still be checking
Three groups, reliably:
- Homeowners with a mortgage in a high tax state. Mortgage interest plus capped state and local taxes is the combination that most often clears the standard deduction.
- Anyone with an unusual year. Large uninsured medical costs, or substantial charitable giving, can push a normal year over the line.
- Anyone whose circumstances changed. A house move, a marriage, a divorce, a large one off gift. The answer is not stable across years, and the standard deduction itself moves annually.
Outside those, the standard deduction usually wins comfortably and the calculation takes a minute to confirm. None of it touches the business expenses of a self employed person, which come off before this point entirely.
What people wrongly think is deductible
Two beliefs, both common and both expensive.
That state and local taxes come off without limit. Covered above. The cap is the single largest reason itemising stopped working for people it used to work for.
That any giving counts. It has to be to an eligible organisation, which not every worthy cause is. Money given directly to an individual is not deductible however deserving. And the records matter: a contribution of 250 dollars or more requires a contemporaneous written acknowledgement from the charity. Contemporaneous means obtained by the time you file, not produced afterwards when asked. A bank statement showing the payment is not a substitute for it.
Is it worth calculating both every year
Yes, and it costs very little once the figures are gathered. The inputs are the same either way. The answer changes with the standard deduction itself, with the SALT cap, with your income, and now with two new charitable rules that did not exist in 2025.
A decision that was right last year is not automatically right this year, and 2026 is a year where more moved than usual. Applying the year’s actual changes rather than last year’s habits is part of preparing an individual return.