I don't know anything about taxes either, I just plug my #'s into Turbo Tax and that's it. I know deductions lower your taxable income. So instead of being taxed on say $44,000 you deduct as much as possible so you're taxed on an income closer to $36,000 (for example). I do not know what the max amount of deductions are, but TT did and told me so.
Anyway, better to pay taxes on $36,000 than $44,000 right?