What are common itemized deduction items that can help reduce my tax bill?

You've got a good start on your itemized deductions! Let me add a few things you might be missing: Medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) can be deductible - this includes doctor visits, prescriptions, dental work, eye care, hospital stays, medical travel expenses, and even certain home modifications for medical purposes. Mortgage insurance premiums (PMI) may be deductible if you're paying them. Don't forget about casualty and theft losses from federally declared disasters. If you paid for any tax preparation services last year, those can be deductible. Investment interest expenses might apply if you have them. You're right about the $10k SALT cap - unfortunately that's a hard limit combining state income tax and property taxes. No way around that cap, but make sure you're tracking both to get the full $10k benefit. One last thing - keep good records of all charitable donations, even small ones. They add up!

I was in the same boat as you last year trying to figure out itemized deductions. I finally found this tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me identify a bunch of deductions I was missing. It analyzed my financial documents and found nearly $3,000 in additional itemized deductions I would have missed - mainly medical expenses I didn't realize were deductible and some charitable contributions I had forgotten about. The tool basically reviewed everything and pointed out all the possible deductions based on my specific situation. Saved me hours of research.

Just wanted to update - I tried taxr.ai last weekend and it was actually really helpful! Uploaded my bank statements and mortgage docs and it found about $4,800 in deductions I was going to miss. There were some medical expenses from last summer I completely forgot about, plus it caught some eligible home office expenses from when I was temporarily working remotely (with documentation requirements explained). Definitely worth checking out if you're itemizing for the first time.

If you need to call the IRS with questions about itemized deductions (which I had to do for clarification on some unusual medical expenses), use Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I spent HOURS trying to get through to the IRS directly about some specific deduction questions and kept getting disconnected. Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. They have a demo video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c

I need to apologize for my skepticism. After my 5th failed attempt to reach the IRS about some weird mortgage interest statement issues, I tried Claimyr out of desperation. Got connected to an actual IRS agent in about 25 minutes. She verified my identity and everything, definitely a real IRS employee. She answered my questions about documenting mortgage interest for a refinanced loan and how to handle some points I paid. Saved me at least $1,200 in deductions I would have missed. Consider me converted!

Don't forget unreimbursed job expenses if either of you is a qualified performing artist, fee-basis state or local government official, or an employee with disability-related work expenses. Most other unreimbursed job expenses aren't deductible anymore for W2 employees unfortunately. Also, if either of you paid student loan interest (up to $2,500), that's an adjustment to income rather than an itemized deduction, but still worth claiming!

Don't bother with itemizing unless your total exceeds the standard deduction by a significant amount. I spent hours tracking everything down last year and ended up saving only $340 by itemizing. Not worth the hassle or audit risk imo.