Gary, you are correct that you are mistaken. Without going into all the gory details, the best way to run scenarios is to take yor tax software from last year and do a run through with some estimates if you were to have owned a house, then you can get real close to what you would have saved. If you don’t have tax software you can borrow 2006 turbo or tax cut or even find it dirt cheap in stores since it is obsolete now.
The big thing you missed was that even when you itemize you still get a deduction per person of 3,300. The standard deduction is not 16,9k it is 10,300k, then you add on 3300 per person but you wont lose that when itemizing. State, local and property taxes are also deductable when you itemize and not so when taking the standard so you probably come close to covering the threshold right there and all your interest would be over the top. Once you begin itemizing you can take a few more things that you weren’t (work expenses, safety deposit box, etc.) that you don’t get to when taking the standard, so it opens the door to other deductions. I didn’t own a house last year for the first time in a long while and my tax software still said it was better to itemize than go standard, so for me I know the entire mort interest will be above the threshold, best advice, run a pretend tax scenario and compare it to your real one. If you have this simple of a tax situation and you pay someone to do your taxes for you, stop doing that and do your own while it’s simple just for the education. save the receipt for the software, it’s deductable as well.
