This past year I had a fair amount of professional expenses related to fellowship (books, licensing fees, course fees, etc..) but they do not exceed the standard deduction when filing jointly with my wife. I also foresee having a high number of profession expenses (board study material and exam fees) during this tax year (2009). Can I bunch these deductions together and itemize next year if they exceed the standard deduction? If so what are the rules? Thanks.

Bunching deductions makes sense for a few types of deductions that are only deductible to the extent they exceed a certain threshold. For medical expenses, the threshold is 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. For miscellaneous itemized deductions, which included your professional expenses, the threshold is 2% of AGI.

The catch is that you can't just put an expense to the year you want. Since you are on the cash basis of accounting, the expense is deductible in the year the payment was made or the credit card transaction occured.

Based on what you said, you might benefit by paying whatever professional expenses you can by 12/31/09. Just watch out for the Alternative Minimum Tax.

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