sales tax deduction

[ardi600]

I have not used this deduction in a while, or i have let the software use the tables to calculate it. have a clinet from nevada(no state tax) that has a good amount of purchases which he has paid sales tax on. are all the goods that one purchased and are subject to salestax used for the salestax deduction? anything excluded?
for example:
car 20,000
grocery 10,000
home furniture 10,000
dining 5,000
total 45000
do i just use the amount above multiplied by the state salestax(not the city added tax)?

[BHoffman]

Try this handy link to calculate state sales tax deductions:

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Sales-Tax-Deduction-Calculator

[Jiggers]

I would require the receipts to substantiate the sales tax.

The chart the IRS uses has to be adjusted for the local sales taxes as the chart is the state rate only.

To that amount you can add vehicle sales tax, among others.

You really need to check the instructions for that.

[David1980]

I always use the table amount (with the local rate added like Jiggers says) plus sales tax on certain large expenses (typically cars). Yes, you could use the sales tax paid on "grocery", but doing so would require saving ones receipts for everything all year and a lot of adding numbers to arrive at the total sales tax paid. You can't just ballpark expenses and multiply by the sales tax rate. That is why the IRS gave us the table amount, because it's not realistic for most people to save/add their receipts for the entire year. So as an alternative we can use the table amount, and then add the sales tax paid on cars/planes/boats, home building materials, etc...

[Roland Slugg]

You should read the rules about taking the sales tax deduction. You can deduct either, (A) the table amount plus tax paid on specific additional purchases (of which vehicles are the most common), or (B) deduct the actual sales tax paid as supported by receipts or other documentation.

There is no sales tax on food in Nevada, except prepared food sold by restaurants. Also, the sales tax rates in Clark County (Las Vegas), Washoe County (Reno), and a few other counties and cities are higher than the rest of the state. Here's a link that may be helpful:

http://tax.state.nv.us/pubs.htm#sales