Taxing Matters

[kevin_standlee]

In 2018, I made and kept a resolution to keep track of all sales taxes I paid on every transaction. Using Quicken makes this easier, but it still takes effort. Because of this, I now know that I paid just under $1,000 in sales tax last year. However, it turns out that the "standard sales tax" deduction is apparently more than this, so it won't do me extra good on my income tax, even assuming that itemizing deductions is worth doing, which it rarely has been. Still, I'm glad to know how much I'm paying.

Comments

[lindadee]

Do you track just the sales tax in Nevada, or from all over? Technically, I think you can write off only the sales tax in your home state if you don't have a state income tax. Since i take the standard deduction, for my often knowledge I track my sales tax from wherever I pay it.

[kevin_standlee]

All sales taxes from any state, which would be mostly California when not Nevada. As I recall, the itemized deduction is either sales or income tax, but not both. (Nevada has no state income tax, so that's moot.) But I've only had enough itemized deductions to justify it once, and that was 2002, the year I co-chaired a Worldcon. (Much of my Worldcon-related expenses, which were large, could be treated as charitable contributions.) Even though I'm still paying on my mortgage, the amount of interest isn't large enough to put me into itemization territory. But I do keep track of stuff, just in case.