Compare Your Tax Deductions to the Average American With These Tables
The IRS may look suspicious at you if the claimed deductions are higher than normal for your income level. Compare your deductions to the average to assess audit risk or see if you are missing out on any deductions.
A large charitable donation is a wake-up call for the IRS , but it depends on your income level. A $ 3,000 deduction from charitable gifts would be unusual for someone with an Adjusted Gross Income of less than $ 50,000 (AGI), but not uncommon for those in parentheses of $ 100K and up. Also, the higher your income, the higher your mortgage and real estate taxes will be.
If your findings are much higher than the average for your AGI, double-check them to make sure they are correct. If they are much lower, make sure you include everything.
Don’t let the averages below get in the way of making the deductions you are entitled to – just make sure you have what it takes to prove your claims. Auditing is not fun, but a small organization can help even if it does .
Here’s a chart from Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting US based on preliminary 2015 IRS data:
Average line item deductions | Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting
It does not break down taxes and does not include some of the other deduction categories, so here is another chart from The Motley Fool based on 2011 data:
Are your tax deductions greater than the average American? | Motley fool
And another chart from Forbes that breaks down the $ 100-200K category and is also based on 2011 data:
Tax Deduction Audit Risk | Forbes