The volunteer income tax program that I've been studying for went live today. It was kind of neat to be able to work with real people; I feel like law students become severely desensitized by reading case law all the time. Post November last semester I probably could have eaten dinner while you told me any number of hideously disgusting murder/rape stories (thanks to crim law). Anyway, I obviously can't discuss details of the people that came in, but I was able to get someone a substantial refund. I find myself a bit annoyed with charitable donations, though. It never occurred to me that even if you make a charitable donation (which is a substantial portion of your AGI) you may not get any money back from it if the standard deduction is higher than the donation + other itemized deductions. From what our supervisor told us, it's not uncommon to see the lower and lower-middle class people donating to churches and still being forced to take the standard deduction. It seems like it would be a good idea that if standard deduction > itemized deduction, you could elect to have a percentage of your donation counted as a credit. Good idea? ...