Free tool

Deduction strategy calculator for 2026
Standard, itemized, or bunched?

Enter what you paid and plan to give; this applies the 2026 SALT cap, the 0.5% charitable floor, and the cash-only deduction for non-itemizers, then compares giving every year against bunching two years into one. Three changes landed at once: the SALT cap jumped from $10,000 to $40,400, itemizers picked up a 0.5% charitable floor, and non-itemizers got a cash-only deduction. Enter raw amounts; the cited rules are applied for you, and nothing you type leaves the browser.

Only need a one-year yes or no from amounts you already know? Use should I itemize.

The year and the filer

The cap, the floor, and the standard deduction all key off these two. Nothing you type here is uploaded, saved, or sent anywhere.

Tax year

Tax year 2026, generally filed in 2027. Three charitable rules changed for 2026: a deduction of up to $1,000, or $2,000 on a joint return, for cash gifts by people who do not itemize, a 0.5% floor that itemizers' charitable contributions have to clear, and a limit on the tax benefit of itemized deductions at the top of the rate table.

Filing status

Sets the standard deduction, the SALT cap, and the phase-down threshold. Married filing separately takes half the cap and half the threshold, per the statute.

Adjusted gross income, optional

Used for two things and nothing else: the SALT cap's phase-down for incomes above $505,000 and the 0.5% charitable floor for 2026 itemizers. Leave it blank and both are described rather than applied. It goes nowhere.

MAGI for the SALT cap is AGI plus any excluded foreign earned income or housing amounts and excluded Puerto Rico or possession income. For nearly everyone it equals AGI.

The year, in raw amounts

Whole year, all of it. The SALT line is the one field here that wants the amount you PAID rather than the amount you can claim, because applying that cap is this tool's job.

State and local taxes you paid, before any cap

State income or sales tax, plus property tax, as actually paid. This is the raw amount: the tool applies the statutory cap for the selected year for you, and shows what it trimmed.

Home mortgage interest

Generally the interest your lender reports to you, for debt within the limits that apply to your loan. This tool does not test those limits.

Medical and dental expenses above the floor

Medical costs are generally deductible only above a percentage of adjusted gross income. We do not publish a sourced figure for that floor, so enter only the amount left above it.

Charitable contributions, cash

Money, checks, card payments, and payroll giving to qualified organizations. Kept separate from goods because the 2026 rule for people who do not itemize is a cash rule.

Charitable contributions, donated goods

Fair market value of donated clothing, furniture, and household goods, for the whole year and every organization. The donation calculator builds that figure with a published source on every line.

Other itemized deductions

Anything else you expect to claim on Schedule A. Leave it blank if nothing else applies.

Reference

2026 deduction rules at a glance

Filing status	Standard deduction	SALT cap	Phase-down above MAGI	SALT floor	Non-itemizer cash cap
Single	$16,100	$40,400	$505,000	$10,000	$1,000
Married filing jointly	$32,200	$40,400	$505,000	$10,000	$2,000
Married filing separately	$16,100	$20,200	$252,500	$5,000	$1,000
Head of household	$24,150	$40,400	$505,000	$10,000	$1,000

Itemizers also lose the first 0.5% of AGI of charitable giving for 2026. Figures from the sources listed below.

What deduction bunching is, and when it works in 2026

Bunching means giving two years of donations in one year, so that year clears the standard deduction and you itemize, then taking the standard deduction the next year. It works when your itemized total without giving falls short of the standard deduction by less than two years of giving. The new 0.5% floor makes it work a little better, because a bunched year pays the floor once instead of twice.

The 2026 rules add a hybrid. Because the standard path can now deduct up to $1,000 single or $2,000 joint of cash gifts, you can bunch everything else into the itemizing year and still deduct that much cash in the off year. Goods do not count toward it, so time a big clean-out for the itemizing year. The usual tools: a donor-advised fund, paying January pledges in December, and scheduling clean-outs. A bunched year needs records; see the records guide, and value a clean-out with the bag value calculator or the item lookup.

Four households, four strategies

Household	Inputs	Best plan	Gain over two years
Renter giving cash	Single, AGI $70k, SALT $4k, $3k cash a year	Give every year	$0 of deduction
High-tax homeowner	Joint, AGI $220k, SALT $24k, mortgage $12k, $5k a year	Give every year	$0 of deduction
Near-the-line couple	Joint, AGI $150k, SALT $14k, mortgage $9k, $8k cash a year	Bunch, keep the cash deduction for the off year	$2,050 of deduction
Phase-down couple	Joint, MAGI $550k, SALT $45k, mortgage $20k, $15k a year	Give every year	$0 of deduction

Both years on 2026 rules. Deduction dollars, not tax saved.

How to calculate MAGI for the SALT cap

Modified AGI for the cap is your AGI plus any excluded foreign earned income or housing amounts and excluded income from Puerto Rico or a US possession. For nearly everyone it is simply AGI. Above $505,000 the cap falls by 30% of the excess. Example: MAGI of $550,000 is $45,000 over, times 30% is $13,500, so the cap is $26,900. Inside that band each extra dollar of income also removes 30 cents of deduction, so at the 35% bracket the effective marginal rate on that income is generally around 45%. The floor binds at about $606,333 of MAGI.

The SALT cap schedule and the 2030 cliff

Year	Cap (most statuses)	Phase-down threshold
2025	$40,000	$500,000
2026	$40,400	$505,000
2027 (computed)	about $40,804	about $510,050
2028 (computed)	about $41,212	about $515,151
2029 (computed)	about $41,624	about $520,302
2030 and later	$10,000	No phase-down

2025 and 2026 are printed in the statute; 2027 to 2029 are computed here from its 1% annual increase and may differ by rounding once the IRS publishes them. Because the cap drops back to $10,000 in 2030, the high-cap years are the ones to front-load an itemizing year into.

Common strategy mistakes

Bunching goods into a year without photos and records.
Assuming goods count toward the non-itemizer cash deduction.
Forgetting the 0.5% floor in an itemizing year.
Treating AGI as MAGI when foreign income is excluded.
Missing Form 8283 when a clean-out year pushes goods over $500.

One more 2026 wrinkle: itemizers in the 37% bracket get a reduced benefit from itemized deductions under the new limitation in section 68. This calculator describes it rather than applying it.

What moved, and who it moves

The state and local tax cap is the quiet one. From 2018 through 2024 it sat at $10,000, and for millions of households that single line decided the whole itemizing question: mortgage interest plus capped SALT plus ordinary giving stopped clearing the standard deduction, so people reasonably stopped itemizing and, just as reasonably, stopped keeping donation records.

For taxable years beginning in 2026 the statute prints the cap at $40,400, half that for married filing separately, phasing down above $505,000 of modified adjusted gross income but never below $10,000. A household paying $18,000 in property and state income taxes just found $8,000 of itemized total it did not have in 2024, and that is before any donation. If the last time you checked the itemizing line was years ago, the answer may have changed while you were not looking, which is precisely what the calculator above is for.

The other two changes cut the opposite way, and honesty requires both. Itemizers lose the first 0.5% of AGI of their charitable giving to the new floor. And the much-covered deduction for non-itemizers, up to $1,000 single or $2,000 joint, is a cash rule: the bag of clothes it is so often advertised with does not qualify. The full rule, with its sources and its hedges.

What this calculator refuses to do

It will not estimate your tax bill or your savings in dollars, because that requires a marginal-rate conversation this page cannot hold honestly in a sidebar; the tax savings calculator exists for exactly that. It applies no medical floor, because we have not published a sourced figure for one, so that field asks for the post-floor amount. And it treats the income you type as modified AGI, which matches AGI for nearly every filer; if foreign-income exclusions are part of your return, this is not your tool. Every figure it does apply carries its source in the reference list below.

Primary sources for the applied figures

26 U.S.C. § 164, Taxes (see § 164(b)(6) and (b)(7), limitation on individual deductions for state and local taxes)Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, Statute
Public Law 119-21 (One Big Beautiful Bill Act), enrolled text of H.R. 1, secs. 70111, 70424, 70425U.S. Congress, Statute
Revenue Procedure 2025-32, inflation adjustments for tax year 2026 and the 2025 amounts as amended by Public Law 119-21IRS, IRS guidance
Topic no. 506, Charitable contributionsIRS, IRS guidance
Publication 505 (2026), Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax, What's New, full textIRS, IRS publication

FAQ

The 2026 strategy questions

What is the SALT deduction cap for 2026?

$40,400 for most filing statuses and $20,200 for married filing separately, per 26 U.S.C. section 164(b)(7) as amended by Public Law 119-21. Above $505,000 of modified adjusted gross income ($252,500 MFS) the cap phases down by 30% of the excess, but never below $10,000. These amounts are printed in the statute itself, and the cap returns to $10,000 after 2029.

Why does the SALT cap matter for charitable donations?

Because it moved. From 2018 through 2024 the cap was $10,000, and for many households that single change pushed the itemized total under the standard deduction, which made their donations do nothing federally. With the cap at $40,000 for 2025 and $40,400 for 2026, a household paying real property and income taxes may be back over the line without knowing it, and once itemizing wins again, every documented donation counts again. This calculator shows that headroom from your own numbers.

Does this calculator apply the 0.5% charitable floor?

Yes, when you supply an adjusted gross income, for years that have the floor. The IRS states that beginning in 2026, itemizers deduct only the charitable contributions above 0.5% of AGI. The figure comes from Publication 505 (2026) and is applied as a simple subtraction here; the statute words the base as the contribution base and provides ordering and carryforward rules, so treat the result as an estimate.

Can I deduct donations if the standard deduction wins?

For 2026, only cash, and only up to a cap. The IRS states that a non-itemizer may deduct up to $1,000, or $2,000 on a joint return, of cash contributions to certain qualified organizations. Donated goods do not qualify for that deduction; they generally count only on the itemized path. The calculator shows this on the standard path automatically, using only the cash you entered.

How is this different from the should-I-itemize calculator?

The itemize checker answers one year from amounts you can already claim. This one starts from raw amounts, applies the SALT cap and the 2026 floor, and compares timing across two years.

What is charitable bunching?

Giving two (or more) years of donations in one tax year so that year clears the standard deduction and you itemize, then taking the standard deduction in the off year. It helps when your itemized total without giving sits just under the line.

Does bunching still work with the 2026 non-itemizer deduction?

Yes, and the new rule adds a variation. Bunch most of your giving into the itemizing year, then give up to $1,000 (single) or $2,000 (joint) in cash in the off year, which the standard path can now deduct. Goods do not count toward that off-year deduction.

How do I calculate MAGI for the SALT deduction?

Start from AGI and add back any foreign earned income or housing exclusion and excluded income from Puerto Rico or a US possession. For nearly every filer MAGI equals AGI. Above the threshold, the cap falls by 30% of the excess, never below the floor.

What happens to the SALT cap after 2029?

Under the statute the cap rises 1% a year through 2029, then returns to $10,000 for 2030 and later, with no phase-down. Years with a high cap are the ones where itemizing is easiest to reach.

Is a donor-advised fund required to bunch?

No. A donor-advised fund makes bunching tidy, because you take the deduction when you fund it and grant it out later, but you can also bunch by giving directly, paying next year's pledges in December, or timing a large clean-out in the itemizing year.

Should I prepay property taxes to bunch SALT?

Only if your SALT is under the cap and your locality lets you pay a billed tax early; prepaying an unassessed tax is generally not deductible. Above the cap, prepaying adds nothing. Check with your preparer.

Does it estimate my tax savings in dollars?

No, deliberately. Converting a deduction into dollars requires your marginal rate, and pretending one number covers that is how calculators mislead. The DeductiBee tax savings calculator holds that conversation properly, showing the chain from donation to deductible amount to an estimated range with the rate assumption stated.

Related tools

The rest of the decision

Before December 31

The gap is only actionable while the year is open

DeductiBee keeps the running annual total that makes this calculator's question answerable in real time: every donation valued from a cited dataset, photographed, and counted toward the line.

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