(For more on why you might be better off with the standard deduction, particularly for 2009, click here).
With a standard deduction of $4,750 annually, a single person sees the benefits of itemized deductions like mortgage interest and property taxes before a married couple filing jointly, for whom the standard deduction is $7,950.
If you separated before July 1, an additional, more beneficial "head of household" status with a standard deduction of $8,350 is available if you had custody of a dependent child, and paid more than half the cost of providing the home for him or her.
The vast majority of filers go with the standard deduction because their expenses that would be itemized don't exceed $12,600.
With the bigger standard deduction, only 5percentt of households would still benefit from itemizing, compared to the 30 percent that do today.
"If it has got the other offsets with the increased standard deduction, and it ends up basically neutral to those middle-income taxpayers, then why wouldn't we?" LaMalfa asked.
Among them are new or expanded credits for home purchases, energy-efficient home improvements and college costs; the making-work-pay credit; and the right to enhance the standard deduction with additional deductions for real estate taxes and sales taxes on purchases of new vehicles.
In 1993, the year Bill Clinton took office, a married couple claiming the standard deduction — with no children, tax credits or other adjustments to income — and earning $75,000 apiece in wages, would have paid $35,650 in federal income taxes.
With the standard deductions for 2015 raised to $12,600 for married filers, and $6,300 for single filers, homeowners can only deduct their housing expenses to the degree that they exceed these thresholds.
The standard deduction varies with your filing status.
