Do any of you benefit from itemizing on your income taxes? We may one of these days but with our mortgage interest so low, no medical bills, etc, there is no benefit from itemizing for our family of four with the Standard Deduction at over $10,000.

Irregardless, we itemize every year... We save everything, claim all that we can, and still we have never hit the Standard Deduction since it was raised a few years ago!

We are middle class America. It feels unfair to me... sigh.

I'm throwing a pity party... anyone want to come?

We benefit from itemizing. Although, the benefit is not significant.

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We definitely benefit from itemizing and have for 20+ years. State income tax puts us well into the plus side for itemizing....plus mortgage interest, property taxes at almost $4k, personal property taxes (vehicles), and charitable contributions....it adds up!

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

We definitely DO benefit from itemizing. I just looked at our 2007 return and the standard deduction now is $10,700. Our itemized deduction was over $17,000! Every year we have itemized since we bought our first house in 1991. It's always been well worth it (sometimes not quite as much as this year though!!). It's a pain to keep up with all the paper work throughout the year though.....

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Mom to a beautiful 15 year old DD and my handsome little man who's 6!

~~~GO DALE JR!!~~~

We benefit from itemizing but as Chelmo said it's not a big difference in the $ at times..we still benefit from it though right now, maybe not much longer! oldest is in college now and we can't claim him forever, lol

We come no where close to having enough to itemize versus using the standard deduction. Where do you come up with $17,000 in itemizations??

OK, say someone earns $100K and their state income tax is 5%. They own a $300K home that they put 20% down and borrowed $270K at 6% with a monthly mortgage payment of about $1600 P&I - ~$1200/mo is going toward interest in the early years. Taxes on the property are $3k.

State income tax - $5k
Mortgage interest - $14.4k
RE Tax - $3k
Excise Tax (Vehicles) - $1k
Charitable - Cash - $300
Charitable Non-Cash - $300
Total $24k

Pretty easy actually!

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Basically helps those with high mortgage interest if you look at the bottom line... Next year, ours will be high because we just purchased and are starting over on a mortgage loan.

We always itemize.

We live a much simpler lifestyle. I never imagined paying around $14,000 a year in mortgage interest. That would pay my mortgage payments for 2 years.

It's not a matter of simpler (or better), it's a matter of cost of living. In many parts of the country, for example, the Northeast and California, that's just how much housing costs. In my area, $300k is what you pay for a 3-bedroom ranch in the suburbs - heck, I've got one guy on my team that paid over $400k for a 2-bedroom condo (that was closer to the city though).

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

A friend of mine purchased a 4BR home in the Boston area for over a million. Some areas, that's just the cost of things, sadly. Lucky for them, he's in a very high paying job.

ETA: Yes, we itemize, and benefit.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Here you MIGHT find a tear down for under 400K.

Just my home mortgage interest was over 26K

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I have OCCD
Obsessive-Compulsive Coupon Disorder!!!

We itemize every year and it's definately worth it.

I have a charity folder and a tax folder and I keep everything in one place so it's very easy to find when tax time rolls around. I make an itemized list of everything I donate, take a digital picture, print it off and staple it to the receipt. Donations to charity really add up. I also keep receipts from everything I buy & donate to the schools. I have always kept track of all my mileage for volunteer time, but last year was the last year for that - my kids are getting older and I'm not as involved in all the volunteering...I didn't have near as many miles last year as I have in past years.

If you take the time to keep track, itemizing can definately pay of for you!

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

We kept track of everything. Added up to a little over $6,000.

Don't forget you can claim the sales tax deduction here. We bought a new vehicle this year, and you can add that in on top of the regular sales tax deduction. Also, if you pay to get your taxes done, that goes in here. Charitable donations go in here, as well, and your property taxes. Almost everyone pays those

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Yup... all of that counted, still less than $10,700.

I guess I'll be happy in knowing that we live in a lower cost of living area then so many others.

It truly DOES add up pretty easy! My DH has ALOT of taxes taken out and thankfully earns good money. Our mortgage interest isn't quite as high at $14K (thank goodness) but we had alot of charitable donations (church tithes, etc) and quite a few in medical expenses this year. With all that, like you said...it was easy to get it to all add up! Sadly, I just went back to work , so our income will shoot up into the next tax bracket next year and we probably won't get nearly as much back as we will this year!

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Mom to a beautiful 15 year old DD and my handsome little man who's 6!

~~~GO DALE JR!!~~~

We have been able to itemize every year since having a house. We donate 10% of our income to our church for tithing. That's always helped, plus the mortgage interest, then the real estate taxes and state taxes... It all adds up.

Yep, well worth the benefit. We had over $19K in mortgage interest alone

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

We had $650 mortgage interest. I think that herein lies the difference. It has been for a similar smallish amount for the last few years since we almost had our house paid off when we made this big real estate purchase which we'll have BIG interest for in 2008.

I'm catching on now! Ha ha.

Sometimes I feel so dense, sigh.

We don't benefit from itemizing and just do standard deductions.....We are a family of 8

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Nicole