amaz - you are absolutely correct. The one good thing President Bush has done is bumped up the standard deduction for filing Head of Household or Married. Of course you should compare the standard deduction and itemized deductions and take the larger of the two. A program like Turbotax is great for that purpose if you are going to do your own return. It can help you determine which deductions are allowed and maximize your refund. But if you do use a serivce like H&R Block, ask them to check both for you, also.