Can't decide what's the right amount to claim sales tax deduction. Please advice.

[sankalp-money]

I live in WA state with no income tax. I'm doing itemized deduction this year and I wanted to claim sales tax deduction for 2024. This will go on Line 5a on Schedule A of Form 1040. I understand that it is capped as 10k max.

One option is this IRS Sales Tax Deduction Calculator (link). When I put in my family's income, 1 dependent, and my zip code it gives me the following

State Tax %, Taxes Paid: 6.5000%, $2,188.00

Local Tax %, Taxes Paid: 2.9751%, $1,001.46

which means I can deduct up to $3189 on line 5a.

However, a consultant friend whose help I have taken in the past tells me that I can claim only the state component $2188 on 5a, and he refers me to pg 15 of this IRS document which also states the same number 2188 (since its a standard for the income and number of dependents) - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i1040sca--2024.pdf

He says I can't claim the local tax component because only residents of MI, OH, PA, KT and NY can claim the local taxes. He didn't share any guideline doc that mentions these states.

I'm wondering if that's true at all? I couldn't find any doc that says otherwise or specifically mentions these five states.

[Opus 17]

I don't see anything in the instructions that says that.   See the instructions for schedule A,

https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sca#en_US_2024_publink1000131491

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc503

There are also FAQs right on the front page of the IRS sales tax calculator that talk about local taxes and don't mention anything about this.

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/use-the-sales-tax-deduction-calculator

It can get tricky if you are using the actual expense method from your own receipts.  For example, my city charges an 11% meal tax on eat-in meals at restaurants in the city limits, instead of the general sales tax rate of 6.5%.  That higher rate is not allowed when using the exact expense method.  Or if you take a trip and you have to pay a hotel tax that is higher than the general sales tax rate (a way for cities to charge extra money to visitors instead of soaking their own residents) that is not allowed.  

But I don't see anything that you can't use the numbers the IRS gives you when you use the standard method.  I would imagine that if local sales taxes were disallowed in some states, the IRS calculator would not give you a number for local sales tax.