Standard vs itemized deduction for a new starter in tax filing - which to choose?

The standard deduction for single filers for tax year 2024 is $14,600. This is the amount you can subtract from your income without having to provide any documentation or receipts. Itemizing means listing out each individual deduction you qualify for (charitable donations, medical expenses over a certain threshold, mortgage interest, etc.) and adding them up. You'd choose whichever gives you the larger deduction. Based on what you've shared, your itemizable expenses are probably around $800 in charitable donations. The student loan interest (up to $2,500) is actually an "above-the-line" deduction, meaning you can claim it regardless of whether you itemize or take the standard deduction. Same with your work certification courses which might qualify for the Lifetime Learning Credit. The laptop and mileage might be trickier since you're an employee - these would typically only be deductible if you were self-employed. Before 2018, employees could deduct unreimbursed work expenses, but that's no longer available for W-2 employees. For your situation, the standard deduction ($14,600) will almost certainly be much higher than what you could itemize, making it the better choice.

After reading your situation, I strongly recommend checking out https://taxr.ai - it literally saved me from a similar situation last year. I was also a new grad and was completely lost about deductions and credits. The tool analyzed my situation (which sounds similar to yours with student loans and work expenses) and showed me I was eligible for education credits I didn't even know about. The best part was that it explained everything in simple terms so I finally understood what was happening with my taxes. You upload your docs or just answer questions about your situation, and it shows you all the deductions and credits you qualify for - comparing standard vs itemized automatically. It even caught that I could deduct my student loan interest separately from the standard deduction, which my friends had told me was impossible!

OK I have to admit I was wrong about taxr.ai in my earlier comment. I decided to try it out of curiosity and wow - completely different experience than TurboTax! It actually explained WHY I should take the standard deduction in my case (I'm also a relatively new grad) and showed exactly how much more I was saving vs itemizing. It also found two education credits I had no idea about from some professional development courses I took last year. That alone was worth over $400 in tax savings. The explanation of student loan interest being separate from the standard deduction was super clear - something I've been confused about for 3 years now. For anyone else who's new to taxes or just confused about deductions, definitely worth checking out. I'm honestly annoyed at how much money I probably left on the table in previous years.

If you're planning to call the IRS to ask about which deduction to take - good luck! I spent 4+ hours on hold trying to talk to someone about a similar question last year and eventually just gave up. A friend recommended https://claimyr.com and I was super skeptical, but it actually worked. You enter your phone number, and they somehow navigate the IRS phone tree for you and call you back when an actual human agent is on the line. Saved me literally hours of waiting on hold. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent ended up being super helpful and walked me through exactly what I needed to know about deducting my student loan interest and explained why the standard deduction was definitely better for my situation (similar to yours). She even explained how credits work differently than deductions, which I never understood before.

Well I'm eating my words about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment yesterday, I decided to try it out of pure curiosity since I've been trying to reach the IRS about a missing refund for weeks. I got connected to an IRS agent in 37 minutes without having to listen to that awful hold music or worry about getting disconnected. The agent was able to resolve my refund issue, and I also asked about the standard vs itemized deduction question since I'm in a similar boat as the original poster. For anyone curious: she confirmed that for most new grads, standard deduction is almost always better unless you have massive medical expenses, a mortgage, or unusually large charitable donations. But she also confirmed that student loan interest is deductible regardless of whether you itemize or take standard (up to $2,500), which was news to me!

One thing nobody mentioned - check if your parents are still claiming you as a dependent! If they are, it affects what deductions you can take. My first year working I screwed this up because my parents claimed me (I lived with them for 5 months that year) and I also claimed myself. Created a huge headache!

Everyone's focusing on standard vs itemized, but don't sleep on tax credits! Unlike deductions that just reduce your taxable income, credits directly reduce your tax bill dollar for dollar. The education credits are huge for new grads - American Opportunity Credit (up to $2,500) if you were in school part of the year, or Lifetime Learning Credit (up to $2,000) for your certification courses. These are WAY more valuable than deductions.