Tax question for sales tax!

[Pulse Red GTO]

Ok I don't even know if you can do this or not, but I though I heard someone saying that you could claim sales tax paid on your taxes if you purchased a automobile? Is this correct & how would you go about doing it? I know here in Illinois, our city has a extra 1% tax on top of the state, so I didn't know how that worked. Any tax people with some advice

Also energy star tax credit, I bought a new dishwasher, but on taxact.com I don't see anything about that, just doors, insulation, furnace, didn't know if you could include applieances in that or not???

Thanks!!!!!!!

[gwballin]

I am pretty sure the energy star tax credit will not apply to a dishwasher, which seems to be confirmed by the software you are using.

As for the sales taxes, if you itemize your deductions you can choose either to deduct your state income taxes or sales taxes. Keep in mind, it is one or the other and it only does you any good if you do not take the standard deduction. There is a chart the IRS provides to estimate the amount based on income so you do not have to keep every receipt from every purchase and add up all of the sales taxes you paid. In addition to that amount, the sales taxes from some large purchases, such as a car, can be added to determine the total sales taxes allowed to be deducted.

[Pulse Red GTO]

Ok cool thanks! I am actually about $1,000 shy of being able to itemize, will this maybe help me out? It is for married jointly, so standard deduction is $10,700 which I right now have $9,700 in deductions. Do you think it would be benificial to do the sales tax? We bought our new Envoy this year, so I have like $1,800 just right there in tax that was why I was thinking of doing it!
Thanks for the reply!!

[gonzo99ta]

yes it will help. from what i understand you can claim the full amount in tax for big purchases (like cars) and still claim the standard sales tax for your given income.

[Pulse Red GTO]

Sweet, I will have to figure that out & see what I can get!!! Thanks again!!