Reply #26: Sounds good in the headline, but you need to think about what

[napi21]

it would actually do for the low to middle income people.

Because the standard deduction is fairly high now, 80% of tax filers don't itemize anymore. Things that have been capped, like only being able to deduct medical expenses in excess of 7% of your adj. gross income, and very low mtg. interest rates, have made it a much better deal for most to just use the standard deduction. Allowing you to deduct the sales tax or state income taxes isn't going to help low to middle income taxpayers at all. They are still going to be better off using the standard deducton.

For upper middle income people, it would give some benefit, but is that really what we're looking for? Yet another break for them!