If you have a reverse mortgage you generally don’t have any home mortgage interest to deduct on your tax return. That’s often the biggest deduction on a tax return, and without it there may not be enough deductions to itemize so you fall back to the standard deduction. Sometimes a good tax-saving strategy is to double up deductions by “bunching” two years of deductions together one year and use the standard deduction next year. Paying both this and next year’s real estate taxes in the same year is an example. Taxes (state, local and real estate), medical expenses and charitable donations are common bunching candidates.  If your itemized deductions are more than half the standard deduction you are a bunching candidate (the standard deduction is about $15,000 for married filing jointly). On the high side, if your itemized deductions are more than twice the standard deduction bunching may not be worth your trouble.

A special case is any year you pay the reverse mortgage loan balance down. You typically will have mortgage interest to deduct, and bringing other deductions into that year may help your tax bill. For the full story see Tax Planning with a Reverse Mortgage.