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Help Center  >  Individuals  >  Preparing Your Return  >  Deductions

Force Standard or Itemized Deductions

To help maximize your tax benefit, TaxAct compares your itemized deductions to the standard deduction for your filing status and uses whichever provides the greater deduction. To manually select a deduction method in the TaxAct program, follow the steps below:

TaxAct Online

Dashboard

  1. From within your TaxAct return, click Resources.
    • On smaller devices, click the menu at the top left corner of your screen, then make your selection.
  2. Under My Return, click Federal Search. 
  3. Click the Itemized or Standard Deductions drop-down, then click Use itemized deductions or Use standard deduction.
    • The screen label that appears will be the opposite of what the system selected automatically.
  4. The total of each deduction type is displayed. 
  5. Choose the radio button to force the deduction type, then click Continue. 
    • Use my standard deduction
    • Use my itemized deductions

Classic

  1. From within your TaxAct return, click Federal. 
    • On smaller devices, click the menu at the top left corner of your screen, then make your selection.
  2. Click the Itemized or Standard Deductions drop-down, then click Use itemized deductions or Use standard deduction.
    • The screen label that appears will be the opposite of what the system selected automatically.
  3. The total of each deduction type is displayed. 
  4. Choose the radio button to force the deduction type, then click Continue. 
    • Use my standard deduction
    • Use my itemized deductions

Desktop

  1. From within your TaxAct return, click Federal. 
  2. Click the Itemized or Standard Deductions drop-down, then click Use itemized deductions or Use standard deduction.
    • The screen label that appears will be the opposite of what the system selected automatically.
  3. Choose the radio button to force the deduction type, then click Continue. 
    • Use my standard deduction
    • Use my itemized deductions
 

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