Q1: Highway use tax

A: No. it is not a deductible property tax (or registration fee) on Schedule A.
(unless the car is for a business. then this tax is probably deductible on your
business tax return.)

I cannot comment on the state tax issues.



Q2: Married filing separately
A: Your husband can claim the mortgage interest deduction.
BUT, your own return cannot take standard deduction. You have to itemize every
single deduction too!
Please refer to the post I wrote: http://www.huaren.us/dispbbs.asp?boardID=336&ID=293563&page=1

Q3: Unreimbursed Employee expenses
A: I presume those expenses are unreimbursed employee expenses.
If they are for your own business, it has different treatments.
First, unreimbursed employee expenses are subject to the 2%
limit, which means you can claim the amount of expenses that is more than 2% of
your adjusted gross income. So you might start to look into if those expenses
are more than 2% of your AGI.
Second, regarding the missing receipts, when you got
challenged by IRS, they might ask you for your credit card statements/bank
statements. Nodaway, it is odd paying everything with cash, isn’t it? 
You might need to have those expenses on file…

Q4: House closing lawyer fee
A: You are correct that this kind of legal fees cannot be deductible in your
income tax return.
But it might be included in your cost basis when you sell the
house. It depends what exactly the fees are. Since you just bought it last
year, I don’t think it is an item I need to elaborate more…