Taxes You Paid

In order for a tax to be deductible by you, the tax must be imposed on you and must be paid by you during the tax year. You report deductible taxes on line 5 through 9 of Schedule A.

What are deductible taxes?

Deductible taxes include:

State and local income taxes

These taxes include:

• tax withheld from your salary
• estimated payments and
• the tax paid for an earlier year

Box 17 of the tax form W-2 states the amount of state tax withheld. Your local tax withheld is reported in box 19 of Form W-2. Also deductible are mandatory contributions you  made to the:

• California, NJ or NY Nonoccupational Disability Benefit Fund,
• RI Temporary Disability Benefit Fund,
• Washington State Supplemental Workmen's Compensation Fund, or
• West Virginia Unemployment Compensation Fund.

General sales taxes

See Sales Taxes Deduction

Real Estate taxes

These are taxes on real estate property, such as your home or other land that you own that was not used for business. The taxes must be based on the assessed value of the property. Generally, real estate taxes are deductible when paid. With an escrow account, you can deduct the real estate tax in the year the lending institution pays it.

Personal property taxes

Taxes that state and local governments charge on the value of personal property are tax deductible. An example is personal property taxes based on the value of your car or boat. In some states, a portion of the cost of personal vehicle registration may be deductible if part of the fee is based on the value of your car.

Foreign income taxes

Generally you can take either a deduction or a credit for income taxes imposed on you by a foreign country or a US possession.