Wife and I make 70,000.. neightour makes 70,000... I can't do a sch A even though I give about 6,000 to the church... standard deduction is 12,200
Neighbor gives nothing... and does not do a sch A either...
Where is the justice for what I gave to the church ? None I guess ?

NOWHERE is it written that taxes are fair!

Besides, fairness is a relative term! Neil Boortz, an Atlanta talk show host, ranted for decades that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was grossly unfair to all the wealthier taxpayers because it gave money to the working poor, yet I am sure that the single mother of two who uses the EITC to pay her Christmas bills would not agree.

The minimum wage food service worker who pays between 10-15% in income taxes believes he/she is under a terrible tax burden, yet thinks the CEO of Coca Cola, who is paying a marginal tax rate of 39.6%, is NOT paying his "fair share" in taxes.

So stop trying to apply fairness to the tax system and go make an appointment with your tax advisor to see how you can deduct your church donations for 2014.

It is assumed in the standard deduction that you will donate a certain amount to charity,

Also, with an income of 70,000 by church opinions, that was less than the 10 percent, which is considered the tithes, and does not even start with any additional offerings.

In addition to what the others said. You note the standard deduction is 12200. So assuming you don't own your own house, you have few other deductions except what you give to your church. So your standard deduction gives you double what you paid in charity. So where is the fairness in that? According to your logic, there should be no standard deduction and people would just be able to deduct what they actually paid in deductible expenses. In which case your taxes would be even higher!

Sounds like you really haven't thought your rant through.

I've moved the discussion to a discussion thread here: https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/other-member-discussions/flat-tax-tiered-781499.html

My wife is a school teacher.. 4 year olds.spends , about 2,500 to 3,000 in stuff for the kids... paper.. books games.. lanmanates a lot of stuff for the walls and posters... etc... do you think 3,000 would be questioned ? It would go in
Job expenses and miscellaneous.. thank you

Your wife gets to deduct $250 as an adjustment to income.

Claiming the rest as employee business expenses IS valid, but it requires to itemize your deductions, which realistically can only be done if you own a home on which you are paying a mortgage.