Can I deduct car purchase with cash and taxes paid at DMV - Standard deduction or itemized?

So if I'm married and our standard deduction is $27,700, but I only paid maybe $1,000 in taxes on my car purchase, it's probably not worth itemizing, right? Do most people even hit that $10,000 SALT cap?

You're exactly right - if your total itemized deductions (including the car tax) won't exceed your standard deduction amount, then taking the standard deduction makes more sense financially. Most married couples would need significant mortgage interest, charitable donations, and other deductible expenses to make itemizing worthwhile. As for the SALT cap, people in high-tax states like California, New York, and New Jersey often hit that $10,000 limit with just their state income taxes and property taxes. But in many other states, reaching that cap is less common for middle-income households.

Does this service actually help calculate if you should itemize? I've got medical expenses, charitable giving, AND I bought a car last year. Honestly don't know which way would be better for me.

I'm a bit skeptical about these tax tools. How accurate is it compared to like H&R Block or TurboTax? Those already tell you whether standard or itemized is better once you input everything.

Yes, it absolutely helps with the itemize vs. standard deduction decision. It analyzes your documents and shows what deductions you qualify for and which option maximizes your refund. It actually breaks down the comparison side-by-side so you can see exactly where you stand. For accuracy, I found it to be more thorough than the big tax software I've used. The difference is it uses AI to find deductions you might miss when self-entering data. It caught some medical expenses I didn't realize were deductible that TurboTax missed when I input everything manually.

How does this even work? Is it legal to skip the IRS phone queue somehow? Sounds too good to be true.

Yeah right. Nothing gets you through to the IRS faster. I've tried everything and always end up waiting 2+ hours or getting disconnected. This sounds like a scam.

It's completely legal - they use a system that continuously redials the IRS and navigates the phone tree for you. When they get through, they call you and connect you directly to the agent. You're not cutting any lines, the service is just doing the tedious waiting part for you. No, it's definitely not a scam. I was skeptical too until I tried it. I got a call back in about 12 minutes and was connected directly to an IRS representative. Saved me hours of waiting on hold and the frustration of getting disconnected after waiting forever.

I didn't even think about that! I live in Texas so we don't have state income tax, just sales tax and property tax. I think my property tax was around $4k this year, so with the car purchase tax of about $800, I'm still well under that $10k cap. But I'm pretty sure I'm still better off with the standard deduction since I don't have mortgage interest (I rent).

That makes your situation more straightforward then. In a non-income tax state like Texas, you can deduct sales taxes instead, which includes the tax on your car purchase. But you're right - without mortgage interest or other large deductions, you'll probably still come out ahead with the standard deduction. Even if your total itemized deductions were around $5k (property + sales tax), as a single filer you'd need another $8-9k in deductions to beat the standard deduction. For most renters without extraordinary medical expenses or massive charitable donations, the standard deduction is typically the better option.

Yes! That tool is super helpful. You don't need all your receipts - it gives you a standard amount based on your income and state, and then you just add big purchases like cars separately. Saved me from digging through a year's worth of receipts.

This is really good advice! I think a lot of people (myself included) get tunnel vision and only focus on the big ticket item like the car purchase. But you're absolutely right that it's the combination of ALL deductions that matters. I'm curious though - for the medical expenses, how do you calculate that 7.5% threshold? Is that 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, and then only the amount ABOVE that threshold is deductible? I had some dental work done this year that was pretty expensive, but I wasn't sure if it would even count since I thought there was some minimum you had to hit first. Also, when you say "tax preparation fees" - does that include paying for software like TurboTax or H&R Block, or just if you hire an actual accountant?