Has anyone talked to you about bunching deductions? There are times that you may not qualify for more than the standard deduction, but if you can bunch your deductions in alternating years, this may allow you a bigger deduction. Say your total itemized deductions are just under the standard deduction; if you bunch your medical deductions, contributions, make an extra mortgage payment, etc, maybe in alternating years you may have enough deductions to get more than the standard deduction. This could also work if you itemize but just miss a medical deduction or a miscellaneous itemized deduction because of the limitations (7.5% of AGI on medical, 2% of AGI on misc.) Bunching these deductions will take some planning and you may not like your cash flow if you have to pay some things early to qualify, but saving some taxes may make this worth looking at
