Occasionally, while preparing somebody's tax return, it appears that they just barely fall short of being able to itemize deductions instead of taking the standard exemption.First, some history. The standard deduction was created to make lives easier for many taxpayers and the IRS. By building into the tax law a "minimum" itemized deduction amount, the burden of keeping all the medical, tax, mortgage, charity and miscellaneous expense records is eliminated for many taxpayers. For the standard deduction folks, no more arguing with the IRS over whether the value of those old clothes given to FISH or Goodwill, etc., is worth …