I just used turbo tax and it says $3300 for personal items and $5150 for itemized. I itemized $10,000 for food, computer, and internet payments. Plus I still received my $3300 for personal.

 

Mine was $5150 for filing single...same as it says in Table 7 of the tax guide. Not sure where you saw $8450for a standard deuction. Maybe you're adding the personal exemption amount to the standard deduction?

 

I got it off of 1040 ez.

The deduction works a little different on form 1040, but by the time you complete it you should come out the same.

 

I wouldn't worry at all about being audited by the IRS. They would have to audit thousands of truck drivers to make up for what they could get on one middle class person making over $200,000. The amount an IRS auditor would reclaim for the government wouldn't even cover lunch for that day.

I was audited years ago during the height of the .COM frenzy for claiming my airplane as a deduction which I used to fly back and forth to Canada. It was found that my deduction was real and there was a mistake in my favor. I received a check in the mail for $60.00 which was the first refund I ever got in over 20 years. I framed it and hung it on the wall.

Over 3 months later I got a call from the IRS asking it I had received the check because it was still outstanding. I laughed and said I framed it. They didn't laugh and said to send the expired check back within 7 days and they would issue another check and I had 30 days to cash it and if I didn't I would be fined for every day after that!!!

 

$200,000 /yr is middle class? I got a long way to go to get above the poverty line.