NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Brian Spady doesn’t mind paying taxes. He likes driving on paved roads, traveling through functional airports, availing himself of the fire and police departments in emergencies and the order that traffic lights afford.

“It’s our civic duty as American citizens to pay for these amenities collectively,” Spady told MainStreet.

Although the 47-year-old is quite willing and happy to pay his share of taxes to the IRS, he has found a way to minimize the toll.

“I own real estate in both Texas and New York, and I travel between the two states, but I file my taxes out of Texas because there’s no state income tax,” Spady said.

The business consultant will be among this year's beneficiaries of the option to itemize state sales tax in lieu of state and local income tax, because it was included in the tax extender package passed in December 2014.

“This tax break is beneficial to the seven non-income taxing states,” said Mark Jaeger, an expert with TaxACT, a web based planning and preparation platform.

In addition to state and local sales tax deductions, tax breaks extended by Congress last year include a deduction for mortgage insurance premiums, $250 for educator expenses and $4,000 for tuition and fees.

Still, not all states have had the time to integrate these popular benefits.

“Most states generally conform automatically to federal tax benefits or pass legislation annually to do, so but because the federal tax benefits were extended in mid-December, twelve states were not able to update their legislation before the start of tax season,” said Laura Scherler, tax expert with MyFreeTaxes.

Eight of twelve states have introduced bills to update their conformity date. They include Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

“There is no reason these state residents should delay filing their federal return and getting their federal refund," said Kathy Pickering, executive director of The Tax Institute with H&R Block. "Because this does not impact the benefits taxpayers can claim on their federal return, they should get any federal refund they're owed."

Taxpayers in California, Georgia, Indiana and North Carolina, however, are out of luck unless their state politicians introduce a bill to update the conformity date.

“If these states do not update their legislation, residents will only be able to claim these deductions on their federal tax returns,” Scherler told MainStreet. “They will not be able to claim them on their state tax returns.”

One option is for these taxpayers to delay filing their state tax returns.

“Taxpayers can take these tax breaks on state returns if their state passes conformity legislation and if they’ve filed an extension that allows them to file their state tax return after the April 15th deadline,” Scherler said.

But if the state passes conformity legislation after the taxpayer files their state return, the resident will have to file an amended return in order to claim the deductions.

—Written by Juliette Fairley for MainStreet