Since I own my house, and my income is pretty decent, I take the standard
deduction, as the medical costs do not reach the threshold.
I don't have anything that even comes close to reaching the threshold.
Even when I was running my business, I was on the standard deduction
since you can still use it along with your schedule C. That was one of
my audits. They really watch that closely. It turned out I was not
deducting enough on my schedule C and it triggered the audit. The IRS
guy was great and he actually helped me get extra money back by
walking me through the home office deduction. You can't deduct office
expenses without having an office. My "computer room" qualified.
(dedicated space, not used for anything else).
My problems with the IRS were mostly IRS caused. Year 2000, I was one of
the 2% of the returns they lost. Still filed paper in those days. Twice
they have failed to credit me with a 1099 with withholding. Same company
both times.