It has a benefit if all your itemized deductions add up to more than the standard deduction. For example, I had $35,000 in medical expenses allowing me to enter the amount exceeding 7.5% of my AGI as a medical deduction. I had nearly $10,000 of property tax and sales tax deduction and I had nearly $30,000 of donations. So the total of my itemized deductions far exceeded the standard deduction. As others have said, there are many less tax filers who have enough itemized deductions to be greater than the standard deduction since they increased the standard deduction several years ago.
