In other words, you should really take into consideration your filing status after itemizing or claiming the standard deduction. And if you don’t really know what to itemize, deductions such as your home mortgage interest, real estate taxes, unreimbursed medical expenses, local and state income taxes, sales taxes, donations, and even employee business costs can all be itemized if you want, of course.
However, there are some tricks. For example, you should bear in mind that only medical costs in excess of 7.5 percent of your AGI, as well as employee business-related expenses in excess of 2 percent of AGI, are actually tax-deductible. The deduction for sales, local, state and property taxes is also limited to $10,000.
