Medical and Dental Expenses

• You can itemize any qualifying, unreimbursed medical expenses you paid for yourself, your spouse or your dependents that exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. The IRS allows a range of expenses to be included in this deduction, including preventive care, such as yearly appointments, and treatments, such as operations. You can also include any prescription medications and insulin. Your adjusted gross income is found on line 38 of your Form 1040 tax return.
  
  

Certain Taxes

• The IRS allows you to itemize the costs of certain taxes that you pay. You can elect to deduct either their state and local income taxes or their state and local sales taxes, but not both. You can also write off your real estate taxes and personal property taxes, such as car or boat taxes, as long as the personal property taxes are based on the value of the item rather than the size of the vehicle.
  
  

Certain Interest Paid

• This category most commonly includes mortgage and home equity interest, but also includes investment interest. You can write off the interest on up to $1 million of mortgage debt and $100,000 of home equity debt. These limits drop to the interest on $500,000 of mortgage debt and $100,000 of home equity debt for married couples who file separately. You can also include interest on money you borrowed for investments. For example, if you borrowed money to invest in stocks, you could write off the interest on the loan.
  
  

Other Deductions

• You can deduct both cash and property gifts to charity if you itemize your income taxes. If your donation of property exceeds $500, you have to fill out additional forms to document your deduction. You can also deduct certain unreimbursed casualty and theft losses. The amount is figured with Form 4684. Finally, the IRS allows a range of miscellaneous deductions including job expenses and tax preparation fees.