If your tax refund this year was disappointing, you may be able to do something about it: Contribute more to a retirement fund.
Tax-deductible contributions to 401(k)s, IRAs and other retirement accounts are among the few remaining ways to reduce taxable income if you don’t itemize deductions. And few of us do these days: Only about 1 in 10 taxpayers is expected to itemize now that Congress has nearly doubled the standard deduction, tax experts say. That’s down from about 1 in 3 before the law changed.
FEWER WAYS TO TRIM TAX BILLS
As a result, many of the traditional tips and tricks for reducing tax bills either no longer work or are of limited help. Deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions and medical expenses, for example, can be taken only if you itemize. In addition to increasing standard deductions, the tax law enacted in December 2017 also did away with personal exemptions and curbed or eliminated many other common deductions:
– Unreimbursed work expenses, tax prep fees and job search costs are no longer deductible.