What Deductions Does a Single Person Get for Their Income Taxes?

You subtract tax deductions from your taxable income to reduce your income tax burden. By decreasing your taxable income, you reduce your tax liability. All taxpayers, regardless of filing status, can choose to reduce their adjustable gross income and thereby decrease their taxable income by means of a standard deduction or by itemizing their deductions.

A taxpayer may elect to decrease her taxable income by means of a standard deduction – one deduction of a fixed amount. If you do so, there's no need to itemize your deductions, or list those expenses that you will subtract from your adjusted gross income, an act which reduces your taxable income and your tax liability.

The amount of a standard deduction varies depending on the taxpayer's income, age, filing status and whether she has a disability. What's more, the dollar amount of the standard deduction changes each year. For the tax year 2021, the standard deduction is ​$12,550​ for the "single filer" and the "married filing separately" statuses. In contrast, for 2021, the standard deduction is ​$18,800​ for a "head of household."

If you are unmarried and are 65 years of age or older or blind, you receive an additional standard deduction in the amount of ​$1,750​.

An itemized deduction is the dollar amount you paid for a deductible expense, such as state and local taxes, medical expenses and mortgage interest. If you itemize, you list each of your deductible expenses on Schedule A, which you attach to your tax return.

You may lower your tax bill by itemizing your deductions if the total of these deductions is greater than the standard deduction for your filing status. If you do so, you'll need to keep track of what you spent and keep supporting documents, including receipts, bank statements, medical bills and tax forms.

Even if you take the standard deduction, there are some tax deductions you can claim. Typically, "above-the-line" deductions have no income limits.You simply claim them on Schedule 1 of the Form 1040.

What's more, because these deductions, including the following, lower your adjusted gross income, you might be eligible to claim other tax breaks for which AGI-based income limits exist.

When you contribute to a traditional individual retirement account (IRA), you save for retirement and reduce your tax liability on earned income in the year of your contribution. For the tax year 2021, your contribution limit is ​$6,000​, or ​$7,000​ if you're age 50 or older.

If you contribute to a health savings account (HSA) and make payments for a company health plan with a high deductible, you can deduct any after-tax HSA contributions. The deduction is not available to you if your contributions were made with pre-tax dollars.

The maximum HSA contribution for 2021 is ​$7,200​ for family coverage and ​$3,600​ for an individual. If, during the tax year, you're 55 or older, you can contribute (and deduct) an additional ​$1,000​.

When you work for yourself, you pay the employer and the employee shares of Social Security and Medicare taxes, namely ​15.3 percent​ of net self-employment income. You can write off half of that tax liability as an adjustment to your income. You use Schedule SE to calculate the self-employed deduction.

Assuming you are single and your modified adjusted gross income is less than ​$70,000​, you can deduct up to ​$2,500​ in student loan interest. The deduction is phased out for this who earn more than ​$70,000​, and it disappears entirely for the single taxpayer who earns more than ​$85,000​.

If your divorce decree was in place on or before ​2018​, you might be able to deduct alimony. This deduction vanishes, however, if the decree is changed in 2019 or later to exclude that alimony from the income of your former spouse. Refer to IRS Topic No. 52 for the details.

Depending on your line of work and your personal circumstances, you can write off some business expenses using an "above-the-line" tax deductions. Take a look at Form 1040 Schedule 1 for the details.

If you withdraw cash in a certificate of deposit (CD) early, the bank will assess an early withdrawal penalty. Each bank determines the amount of that penalty (within reason). To account for the penalty, on your taxes, you use Form 1099-INT or Form 1099-OID to document the penalty you paid.

In addition to those listed, there are many other "above-the-line" deductions that a single filer can take using Schedule 1 to lower her tax obligation. See Form 1040 Schedule 1 for the details.

What's more, when a single filer files a tax return, she may itemize "below-the-line" deductions to claim qualified deductions or tax credits for expenses that qualify as deductions. These include medical expenses, mortgage interest payments, and state and local taxes.

When itemizing your deductions, you can deduct the out-of-pocket medical, dental and/or vision expenses that exceed ​7.5 percent​ of your AGI. These expenses include insurance premiums, doctor co-pays, lab fees and the cost of prescription medications, eyeglasses and contact lenses, hospital stays, surgeries and ambulance services.

You can deduct the state and local taxes that you pay each year, including property taxes, state and local income taxes or sales taxes, and personal property taxes. For 2021, the IRS limits these deductions to ​$10,000​.

As a single taxpayer, you can deduct interest you paid on a mortgage for your primary residence and one vacation home. However, the IRS limits your mortgage interest deduction to interest paid on the first to ​$750,000​ of that debt, assuming you incurred the debt after ​December 16, 2017​, or up to ​$1,000,000​ if you incurred the debt prior to ​December 16, 2017​.

You can deduct cash and property donations, assuming that you donate the items to a qualified tax-exempt organization. To confirm a charity is tax-exempt, look it up using the IRS’s Tax Exempt Organization Search tool.