Fewer IRS Forms Itemized

The scaling back of some favorite deductions under the new tax law reduced the number of itemizing taxpayers by 15% this year, the Internal Revenue Service said.

And despite the major changes and a confusing W-4 withholding form, the number of taxpayers receiving refunds this year is up slightly over 1987, the tax agency reported Wednesday.

About 31 million--51%--of the 60.9 million long tax forms received through April 22 itemized deductions, said IRS spokeswoman Johnell Hunter. At the same time last year, 36.4 million--or 60%--of 60.3 million long forms included itemized deductions.

Reducing the number of itemizers was a major goal of the 1986 tax overhaul.

In addition to cutting tax rates and boosting the personal exemption, the new law--which was reflected for the first time on returns filed this year--eliminated the deduction for state and local sales taxes and limited writeoffs for consumer interest, medical expenses and such miscellaneous expenses as union dues.

The combination of a higher standard deduction and a smaller total of itemized deductions made it beneficial for those 5.4 million taxpayers to stop itemizing. By the time the IRS counts all the returns filed this year, the number switching to the standard deduction will be even higher.

The number of taxpayers receiving refunds is up 0.3%, to 55.5 million. That means about 79.5% of filers are getting refunds.