Doggy-Doo Deduction?

[Snaggletooth]

Tax deductions for pet care?? Don't laugh: check out

http://www.petwellbeing.com/articles/2009/08/tax-deductions-for-pet-care.cfm

Animal lover? I are. I have five dogs, most of them rescued from the street.

Fiscal folly? I are not.

Doesn't make sense when real people have to flush away the first 7.5% of their income, and then watch new health care legislation which counsels old people in various ways to die.

[Larmil]

Some Congress Critters have nothing better to do.

[gkaiseril]

Next pets will be getting a dependency exemption and other credits.

Listen to the following/fooling radio news cast:

http://www.theonion.com/content/radio_news/sea_monkeys_claimed_as_0?utm_source=a-section

If you can not take the cost of the food try for the pets.

[ChEAr$]

For years I had been hearing questions: How much of my college tuition can I deduct?
What about deducting my dogs? they're just like family.

And for all of those years I had to say sorry, no college expense deductions, and NO,
you may NOT deduct your pet care. It will never happen. Congress can't be that dumb.
Of course I sometimes had to explain why some people, business owners, got to deduct
expenses of their junk yard dogs.

But you know? Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. These days we have all sorts
of college related deductions and credits. So what can be next you ask?

There's the answer. in the OP.

[fliszt]

I had to lol

reading the various posts on animals.

When I got out of the service back in the xxx's, I took my w2 to HRB. I saw what they did and figured I could do that and save some $ next yr. Next year came around and I started working on filling out my own 1040/A. Saw the term MEDICAL DEDUCTIONS. So I started going thru my ck book for medical payments. Well, I had a cat that had lots of vet bills, and figured those were medical deductions. So I deducted what ever I could for the next couple years until someone told me vet bills were medical, but not IRS type medical.
How embarassing!!!

[JohnH]

Is this a good place to once again mention the deduction a Mary Kay rep wanted me to take one year for the upkeep, vet bills, grooming, and food for her "Security Cat"? Seems like its job was to protect her cosmetics inventory when she was out doing demonstrations - something she had just learned at a seminar.

[Bees Knees]

My cat caught a mouse this morning. A mouse that could have gotten in my client files and chewed up some copies of tax returns. Or the mouse could have carried away a page or two of confidential tax return information that could have caused me to violate the anti-disclosure rules. Thus, my cat saved my business from all kinds of penalties.

That should make my vet bills deductible, right?

[JohnH]

Yes, according to the Mary Kay seminar presenter, as related to me by my client. I'm sure there is no possibility of any confusion on anyone's part in this matter.

[Bees Knees]

I just had to post a comment on that linked article. I am the one who said:

Anonymous said...
I own 8 cats. I think this bill is stupid. A tax deduction isn't going to prevent someone from abandoning a pet. People abandon pets because they are selfish, not because they can't afford them. The pet became too inconvenient, or they had to move someplace that doesn't allow pets. You can't prevent animal cruelty by mucking up the tax code. That is like claiming we can solve murder by raising taxes on everyone who commits a murder. Duh!

August 24, 2009 3:33 PM

[erchess]

Bees

There is a tax adviser who I believe has been put in prison but who made a killing selling to Multilevel Marketers the idea that they could make most or all of their spending deductible by logic such as yours. The last I knew the CDs were still available. For example go to the beach with your family and deduct mileage as business mileage and food and lodging deductible subject to the 50% limit of course because every time you get out of the car somewhere you leave business cards or something else to be picked up by potential customers or distributors and two or three times a day you talk to someone who is a good prospect for your business. (Of course you have to keep the necessary records receipts and so on but he made that sound easier than I think it is.) So my question to you is - do you intend to market CDs to self employed self preparers?

[Bees Knees]

Actually, one of the reasons I took the H&R Block course on tax preparation back in the early 80s was because of all of those wild claims about deducting meals and entertainment every time you go out to dinner and mention your business to the waiter or waitress. My sister was selling Mary Kay at the time, and I didn't know whether or not what she was telling me was legit.