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Food, clothing, and medical supplies. Sales taxes on food, clothing, and medi- cal supplies are deductible as a general sales tax even if the tax rate was less than the general sales tax rate. Motor vehicles. Sales taxes on motor vehicles are deductible as a general sales tax even if the tax rate was different than the general sales tax rate. However, if you paid sales tax on a motor vehicle at a rate higher than the general sales tax, you can deduct only the amount of the tax that you would have paid at the gen- eral sales tax rate on that vehicle. In- clude any state and local general sales taxes paid for a leased motor vehicle. Motor vehicles include cars, motor- cycles, motor homes, recreational vehi- cles, sport utility vehicles, trucks, vans, and off-road vehicles. You must keep your actual re- ceipts showing general sales taxes paid to use this method. Trade or business items. Don't include sales taxes paid on items used in your trade or business. Instead, go to the in- structions for the form you are using to report business income and expenses to see if you can deduct these taxes. Refund of general sales taxes. If you received a refund of state or local gener- al sales taxes in 2017 for amounts paid in 2017, reduce your actual 2017 state and local general sales taxes by this amount. If you received a refund of state or local general sales taxes in 2017 for prior year purchases, don't reduce your 2017 state and local general sales taxes by this amount. However, if you deduc- ted your actual state and local general sales taxes in the earlier year and the de- duction reduced your tax, you may have to include the refund in income on Form 1040, line 21. See Recoveries in Pub. 525 for details. Optional Sales Tax Tables Instead of using your actual expenses, you can use the 2017 Optional State Sales Tax Table and the 2017 Optional Local Sales Tax Tables at the end of these instructions to figure your state and local general sales tax deduction. You may also be able to add the state and local general sales taxes paid on cer- tain specified items. To figure your state and local general sales tax deduction using the tables, complete the State and Local General CAUTION ! Sales Tax Deduction Worksheet or use the Sales Tax Deduction Calculator at IRS.gov/SalesTax. If your filing status is married filing separately, both you and your spouse elect to deduct sales taxes, and your spouse elects to use the optional sales tax tables, you al- so must use the tables to figure your state and local general sales tax deduc- tion. Instructions for the State and Local General Sales Tax Deduction Worksheet Line 1. If you lived in the same state for all of 2017, enter the applicable amount, based on your 2017 income and exemptions, from the 2017 Optional State Sales Tax Table for your state. Read down the “At least–But less than” columns for your state and find the line that includes your 2017 income. If mar- ried filing separately, don't include your spouse's income. Note. The exemptions column refers to the number of exemptions claimed on Form 1040, line 6d. Income. Your 2017 income is the amount shown on your Form 1040, line 38, plus any nontaxable items, such as the following. Tax-exempt interest. Veterans' benefits. Nontaxable combat pay. Workers' compensation. Nontaxable part of social security and railroad retirement benefits. Nontaxable part of IRA, pension, or annuity distributions. Don't include rollovers. Public assistance payments. What if you lived in more than one state? If you lived in more than one state during 2017, use the following steps to figure the amount to put on line 1 of the worksheet. 1. Look up the table amount for each state using the rules stated earlier. (If there is no table for a state, the table amount for that state is considered to be zero.) 2. Multiply the table amount of each state by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of days you lived in the state during 2017 and the denomina- CAUTION ! tor of which is the total number of days in the year (365). 3. If you also lived in a locality dur- ing 2017 that imposed a local general sales tax, complete a separate worksheet for each state you lived in using the pro- rated amount from step (2) for that state on line 1 of its worksheet. Otherwise, combine the prorated table amounts from step (2) and enter the total on line 1 of a single worksheet. Example. You lived in State A from January 1 through August 31, 2017 (243 days), and in State B from September 1 through December 31, 2017 (122 days). The table amount for State A is $500. The table amount for State B is $400. You would figure your state general sales tax as follows. State A: $500 x 243/365 = $333 State B: $400 x 122/365 = 134 Total = $467 If none of the localities in which you lived during 2017 imposed a local gen- eral sales tax, enter $467 on line 1 of your worksheet. Otherwise, complete a separate worksheet for State A and State B. Enter $333 on line 1 of the State A worksheet and $134 on line 1 of the State B worksheet. Line 2. If you checked the “No” box, enter -0- on line 2, and go to line 3. If you checked the “Yes” box and lived in the same locality for all of 2017, enter the applicable amount, based on your 2017 income and exemptions, from the 2017 Optional Local Sales Tax Tables for your locality. Read down the “At least–But less than” columns for your locality and find the line that includes your 2017 income. See the instructions for line 1 of the worksheet to figure your 2017 income. The exemptions column refers to the number of exemptions claimed on Form 1040, line 6d. What if you lived in more than one locality? If you lived in more than one locality during 2017, look up the table amount for each locality using the rules stated earlier. If there is no table for your locality, the table amount is consid- ered to be zero. Multiply the table amount for each locality you lived in by a fraction. The numerator of the fraction is the number of days you lived in the locality during 2017 and the denomina- tor is the total number of days in the A-4