- quote -

It's in the conference report. See below:

Rather than requiring that taxpayers use tables prescribed
by the Secretary to determine their allowable sales tax
deduction, taxpayers would instead have two options with
respect to the determination of the sales tax deduction
amount. Taxpayers would be able to deduct the total amount
of general State and local sales taxes paid by accumulating
receipts showing general sales taxes paid. Alternatively,
taxpayers may use tables created by the Secretary of the
Treasury. The tables are to be based on average consumption
by taxpayers on a State-by-State basis taking into account
filing status, number of dependents, adjusted gross income
and rates of State and local general sales taxation.
Taxpayers who use the tables created by the Secretary may,
in addition to the table amounts, deduct eligible general
sales taxes paid with respect to the purchase of motor
vehicles, boats and other items specified by the Secretary.
Sales taxes for items that may be added to the tables would
not be reflected in the tables themselves.

--
Alan
http://taxtopics.net

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- quote -

I would like a cite for that, that doesn't involve the words
"Pub 600"

--
Don EA in Upstate NY

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jointhenlcpn[at]yahoo.com wrote:

- quote -

Credit card and ATM bank statements do not indicate whether
the item purchased is subject to sales tax. Likewise, debit
card statements when the card is used at the grocery store.
The groceries may be tax-free, but not everything is. The
only way to validate the amount of tax you paid is to have
the actual receipt - or use the Table amount in Pub 600 for
2004. Don't forget that the table amounts can be adjusted
for local and city taxes paid, in addition to the standard
state rate used in compiling the tables.

Get started on saving those receipts for 2005. It may help
you out on the next tax return. After 2005 the deduction is
scheduled to go away, and probably will not be extended. If
you live in a state with a state income tax also, you have
to decide which deduction to claim - not both.

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I'm sure someone will be able to give you a more definitive
answer, but from what I've read about this matter, you can
either use the tables in IRS Pub. 600 or you have to have
the actual receipts.

Saving receipts is not so bad really. I keep a manilla
folder for each month and keep those in an expandable file.
Takes up very little space. Also, when entering your
transactions into quick* you can enter split transactions
and put sales tax in as a line item. this makes seeing your
sales tax expenditures easier to see.

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<jointhenlcpn[at]yahoo.com> wrote

- quote -

You are going to need actual receipts, unless you want to be
the test case.

- quote -

No one did.

- quote -

Who knows. The future has yet to be written on the subject.

If you have a good heart, go for it.

--
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
Athens, Georgia

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jointhenlcpn[at]yahoo.com wrote:

- quote -

In my opinion, no. If you don't have actual receipts on
which the sales tax is separately stated, then your option
is to use the sales tax tables recently published by the IRS
(Pub 600).

MTW

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Can you use credit card and debit card statements to
calculate sales tax paid in 2004 or do you need actual
sales receipts, I only became aware of this deduction a
couple weeks ago so have not been saving receipts, and
realistically I don't know if it's practical to save 100's
of sale receipts, I really try to stay paperless, I have all
my Credit and debit card info downloaded monthly info quick
books where I can accurately estimate my sales tax, would
that work in case of audit?

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