What deductions carry over to next year?

[brianpoon92]

So when starting on my mortgage deductions, there was an example about how home energy improvements are deductible up to a certain extent, and if you meet that extent, you can carry it over to the next year (i.e. $550 - $300 max = $150 to use for next year). So, questions comes up:

1. How to do I carry something over? Is it something automatic, mailed to me in a IRS form, or do I have to just keep tabs on it and don't forget it? 

2. Does everything have a rollover if I hit a limit? My property taxes hit a $10,000 limit on (state and local taxes), but I still have a couple hundred more above that. Can I roll those over to next year? 

[Opus 17]

The only things I can think of that you can carry over are the home energy efficiency credit, charity contributions in excess of the AGI limits for different types of charities, and capital losses.  Where applicable, it's automatic in the program.  The IRS and Turbotax keep track, if you use turbotax each year, the program will do it for you.  If you want to use a different preparer next year, there will be a carry forward worksheet in your tax packet when you download the PDF or print it out.

Most deductions do not carry over.  The whole point of (for example) the $10,000 cap on state and local taxes is to reduce deductions and make some people pay more tax, that doesn't happen if you can stack up unused amounts and push them forward.