"The broader base of givers doesn't itemize, and so they don't have tax considerations in mind," said Leo Arnoult, a fund-raising consultant.
His communications director, Karen P. Hughes, later said that Mr. Bush did not view the plank as contrary to his stated views about the exceptions because "it doesn't itemize how that amendment would be written".
Even though you're paying extra for that delightful little hotel off the Boulevard St.-Germain, your statement often doesn't itemize the special overseas fee, which is lumped into the currency conversion charges.
I would not recommend doing your own taxes unless you are a straight W-2 wage earner that takes the Standard Deductions (in other words, someone who doesn't itemize or have any unreimbursed employee business expenses).
If you do not itemize, and do not have enough deductions to make itemizing worthwhile, you do not get Uncle Sam to share in your mortgage interest and property tax costs.
Still, taxpayers who do not itemize deductions generally will not owe any A.M.T., and itemizers who expect to be subject to the A.M.T. this year can take steps -- apart from a decision not to have any more children -- to minimize the bite.
This is because they do not itemize deductions on their federal income tax returns.
From 1981 to 1986, the tax code allowed people who did not itemize to take deductions for charitable donations.
If they do not itemize their deductions, their tax on a joint return is $9,726.
But most lower-income people do not itemize deductions on their tax returns, so they don't receive this benefit.
