an wrote:
I really havent itemized (I always itemize but it never
comes up to more than the standard deduction! ) so I dont know if it
will be any better this time.

There's a ton of helpful calculators online. Here are some I found
particularly useful:

Here is a loan calculator - plug in your loan details, then look at the
payment schedule tab and see how much you'll pay out in interest this
year and following years. All that interest is deductible, as are the
property taxes.

http://ray.met.fsu.edu/~bret/amortize.html

Then take those numbers and calculate your estimated taxes using this
tool. It depends on your loan amount and interest rate, but a quick
calculation for 6% rate shows that a loan of about $165-170K will
produce interest deductions greater than the $9700 standard deduction.
I'm assuming here that your mortgage loan is higher than that, since
you're worried about the AMT?

http://www.quicken.com/taxes/taxslashing/estimator/

The quicken estimator will also help you analyze your withholding, and
suggest changes you might make to your allowances. The goal is neither
to owe or to get a refund.

Then you can go over to this paycheck calculator (click on "personal
calculators"):

http://www.paycheckcity.com

Plug in your paycheck details, including your current allowance # and
the new allowance # recommended by Quicken. See how much additional
cash will be in your paycheck, which helps with cash flow and meeting
that new monthly mortgage payment.

As I said, I discovered that by buying instead of renting, I could take
up to 9 deductions instead of 2, which increased cash flow enough that
I was finally able to contribute to my 401K. That contribution helped
my tax picture even more.

Here is the AMT evaluator since you're concerned about that:

http://www.quicken.com/taxes/taxslashing/amteval/

Here's more info about the AMT:

http://www.fairmark.com/amt/topten.htm

AMT, far as I can tell, isn't something to worry about unless you have
a second home, or take a large long-term capital gain, but read up on
it and make the calculations for your own particular situation. As my
financial planner says, no investing plan should be made *solely* on
the basis of avoiding tax; that's being penny wise and pound foolish.
IMO, buying a home is definetly one of those investment scenarios,
especially if you plan to stay in the home longer than 10 years and
enjoy all that appreciation.

jen