What is the “STANDARD DEDUCTION”??

Tax laws change all the time and many people don’t realize what has changed.  It’s our job to help you understand those changes and what it means for your family.

With the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” of 2017, the STANDARD DEDUCTION basically doubled allowing many people to lower their taxable income in a meaningful way.  The Standard Deduction means you AUTOMATICALLY lower your income without doing anything.

You don’t have to show the property taxes or how much mortgage insurance you paid, you get the Standard Deduction no matter what.  Deductible expenses like, church tithes, property taxes, medical expenses, mattered more in the past because if you had enough (exceeding the standard deduction), you could “itemize” and lower your income even more.  However, these days, the Standard Deduction is so high, it is typically difficult to exceed it unless you have large charitable contributions or large medical expenses.  Still, it’s important to check qualified deduction vs. the standard deductions to make sure you lower your income as much as possible.  

For 2025, the Standard Deduction is: for Individuals is $15,750 for Married filing Jointly, it’s $31,500

If you know the total of property taxes, medical expenses, mortgage interest, and charitable contributions will exceed this limit.  We will need a summary with the details.  If you are not even close, we can use the Standard Deduction and don’t even need those items to file your return.