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Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service 2018 Instructions for Schedule A (Rev. February 2020) Itemized Deductions Use Schedule A (Form 1040) to figure your itemized deductions. In most cases, your federal income tax will be less if you take the larger of your itemized deductions or your standard deduction. If you itemize, you can deduct a part of your medical and dental expenses, and amounts you paid for certain taxes, interest, contributions, and other expenses. You can also deduct certain casualty and theft losses. If you and your spouse paid expenses jointly and are filing separate returns for 2018, see Pub. 504 to figure the portion of joint expenses that you can claim as itemiz- ed deductions. Don't include on Schedule A items deducted elsewhere, such as on Form 1040 or Schedule C, C-EZ, E, or F. CAUTION ! Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code unless otherwise noted. Future Developments. For the latest information about developments related to Schedule A (Form 1040) and its in- structions, such as legislation enacted af- ter they were published, go to IRS.gov/ ScheduleA. What's New Retroactive legislation. These instruc- tions have been revised to reflect changes made by the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019. The 2018 Schedule A (Form 1040) was also revised to reflect changes due to this act. Use these instructions with the most recent version of the 2018 Sched- ule A (Form 1040). Visit IRS.gov/ formspubs and IRS.gov/LatestForms to make sure you have the latest version of forms, instructions, and publications. Mortgage insurance premiums. The deduction for mortgage insurance premi- ums was retroactively extended by the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019. You may be able to claim the deduction for amounts paid or accrued in 2018. See Line 8d for more information. Qualified charitable contributions. A temporary increase in the adjusted gross income limitation on deducting certain qualified charitable contributions was retroactively extended to payments made in 2018 for relief efforts in certain federally declared disaster areas by the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019. See Pub. 526 for more information. Charitable contribution deduction. Generally, your charitable contribution deduction must be reduced to the extent you receive a state or local tax credit in return for your contribution. However, certain payments made in 2018 may qualify for safe harbor rules that allow the disallowed amount to be treated as a state or local tax payment. See Notice 2019-12 at IRS.gov/irb/ 2019-27_IRB#NOT-2019-12 for more information. Overall limitation on itemized deduc- tions no longer applies. There is no longer an overall limitation on itemized deductions based on your adjusted gross income; however, there may be other limitations that impact the amount of itemized deductions you can claim on Schedule A. Limitation on the deduction for state and local taxes. You can’t deduct more than $10,000 ($5,000 if married filing separate) of your total state and local taxes, including income taxes (or gener- al sales taxes, if elected instead of in- come taxes), real estate taxes, and per- sonal property taxes. See Line 5 for more information. No deduction for foreign taxes paid for real estate. You can no longer de- duct foreign taxes you paid on real es- tate. Limitation on deduction for home mortgage interest. You may be able to deduct mortgage interest only on the first $750,000 ($375,000 if married fil- ing separately) of indebtedness. Higher limitations apply if you are deducting mortgage interest from indebtedness in- curred on or before December 15, 2017. See Line 8 for more information. No deduction for home equity loan in- terest. No matter when the indebted- ness was incurred, you can no longer de- duct the interest from a loan secured by your home to the extent the loan pro- ceeds weren't used to buy, build, or im- prove your home. See Line 8 for more information. No miscellaneous itemized deductions allowed. You can no longer claim any miscellaneous itemized deductions, in- cluding the deduction for unreimbursed job expenses. Miscellaneous itemized deductions are those deductions that would have been subject to the 2 percent of adjusted gross income limitation. See Line 16, later, for a list of other itemized deductions you can still claim in addi- tion to the ones claimed using lines 1 through 15. Limitation on the deduction for casu- alty and theft losses. You can no lon- ger deduct a personal casualty or theft loss unless the loss is from a federally declared disaster. A-1 Feb 10, 2020 Cat. No. 53061X