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California Sales Tax Deduction Calculator

This tool calculates the amount of the sales tax deduction you are allowed. On Schedule A, Itemized Deduction, you have a choice of taking a deduction for the state and local taxes you paid (for example, state income tax withheld from wages) or an estimate of the total sales tax you paid throughout the year, whichever is greater.

The amount of the sales tax deduction you are allowed is estimated based on the following four values.

• Where you live
• Amount of spendable income
• Number of people in your family
• Sales tax paid on large purchases

Where you live determines the sales tax rate that you pay. Some states do not have any sales tax, while others have as much as 10%. In addition, many counties and cities add an additional amount to the sales tax. Note: this tool can only calculate the sales tax deduction for taxpayers living in California.

Your spendable income is based on your total income, not just your taxable income. The more spendable income you have, the more you are likely to spend. Therefore, the IRS created a table with the allowable sales tax deduction based on spendable income and family size.

Finally, the IRS table cannot take into account the sales tax you pay on large purchases that do not occur very often (for example, buying a car). If you make a large purchase, you can add the sales tax from that purchase into the calculation for the sales tax deduction.

Spendable Income