Saturday, January 22, 2011

Common Tax Breaks for Families and Individuals

Who doesn’t love a tax deduction? Last year the average taxpayer claimed about $8,000 in tax deductions. WashingtonPost.com put together a list of the biggest, and most expensive tax breaks from 2009, check out their list below.

    -34.6 million taxpayers cut their federal income taxes by a total of nearly $77 billion by deducting the interest they paid on their home mortgages.

    -36 million families saved more than $54 billion from the $1,000 per-child tax credit.

    -40.7 million taxpayers cut their federal income taxes by $40 billion by deducting state and local income, sales and personal property taxes.

    -33.5 million households cut their taxes by $21 billion by deducting state and local real estate taxes.

    -36 million families cut their taxes by nearly $35 billion by deducting charitable donations.

    -28 million taxpayers saved a total of $24 billion because their income from Social Security and railroad pensions was untaxed.

    -25.7 million low-income families got a total of $55 billion from the earned income tax credit.

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