Thanks temeculaguy. I guess I should have known that. I used turbotax online last year and was looking at the printout that listed a 16,900 deduction so I assumed it was standard for joint filed taxes. I guess I didn’t know there is a 3300 per person deduction when itemizing as I never had enough items to deduct to make it worthwhile. It may be hard to believe that I’ve never understood this, but then again I’ve filed the EZ form my whole life and tried to not worry much about the tax code.
I’m in the military and currently a resident of a state without an income tax so I can’t deduct taxes I don’t pay. If I understand you right, there is still $10,300 I would need to make up with other deductions. So with the exception of the property tax deduction I think my line of thinking still has some merit. The property tax deduction only gets me a few thousand closer. I still think I would need about 8K in other deductions to start “saving” by itemizing.
