Fantasy Tax Deductions and Shelters

My pretend deduction would have to be tissue boxes. Now that cold and flu season is pretty much over, and allergy season is rapidly approaching, I'll be going through tissues like some people go through pairs of clean socks.

Atchoo! Ka-ching!

Theater tickets. They're probably my biggest discretionary spending item. I've never actually added up how much I spend on them per year (because I'm afraid of what I'd find out), but I'm sure it's a hefty sum.

This goes beyond the scope of your question, but my friends and I (who all live in New York City and work in tax publishing) have often said that we'd like to see Congress change the tax code to allow more deductions for the kinds of expenses that city-dwellers typically incur. Since many of the deductions allowed under current tax law benefit home-owning married couples with children, more than they benefit single people who live in apartments, the idea would be to redress the balance by permitting deductions for things like cab fares, Christmas tips to doormen, etc. The legislation could be called the Single Urbanites' Tax Relief Act and -- since Congress likes to give catchy acronyms to its tax legislation -- could be known as "SUTRA", for short.

Ha! SUTRA's great!

I'd go with magazine subscriptions. I have a lot of them and it would be great if I could deduct them.

Clothes would be a good one as well.

I heard a commentator say that he thinks that the cost of his food should be taken off as a medical expense............'cause the MD put him on a diet!

Food would be the best deduction of all time. Very few people would end up paying taxes. Now that I think of it, mortgage payments would even be better.

My travel expenses. That should be worth over $15K/year. c.i.

Montana, you can deduct magazine subscriptions and even purchases, if they are material to your employment. Professional journals, natch, but also for fashion designers any rag that features fashion or fashion ideas.
Reporters can deduct subscriptions to magazines that they use for research.

I know what you are thinking gentlemen : if I could just find a way to get the IRS to recognize that I need to research the fashions of the Coeds of the Southeast Conference, hence that stack of slick um photographic journals.

Joe

Joe
I knew that, but unfortunately all my magazines are far from business related. They consist of crafts, cooking, antiques, etc...

I'd like to deduct food, water and shelter as a business expense.
It's awfully hard to conduct business if I'm not actually living!

But in real life, I haven't filed taxes in nine years, so I guess the question is irrelevant. They keep sending me outrageous bills, but it's humanly impossible to pay such ridiculous demands, so that's that.

I wish *I* could make up such numbers and have people pay me! Wow.

Smiley, I'd like to WELCOME YOU to A2K, before the IRS takes you to that place where people seem to disappear from society. c.i.

Thanks c.i., this seems like a really friendly and thoughtful discussion forum... been browsing and enjoying all the ideas.

Do you really think the IRS is a terrorist organization?
Have you heard of anyone actually disappeared, for not defending themselves on paper?

If someone comes at me swinging a knife (financial, social, economic, or physical) I just walk away...

You probably should run, not walk, from the taxman!

Fisrt Smiley I'd also like to welcome you to A2K.

Second, I agree with Cicerone and Margo is saying the taxman can be the hackman. Funny, I just got finished watching a program about the IRS and just how brutal they can be and it scared the bajesus out of me and I've always been on the up and up with my taxes. Very scary stuff to say the least.

Run Smiley, run!!!!

I probably should run. I'm ready to run. I've been waiting to run.
I'm just curious if and when I might ever have to.
What does it mean to run anyways?

It's not like I'm lying, cheating, or stealing. I'm on the up and up, I just
don't bother filing any forms. (So I didn't know how to answer this poll).

If the IRS takes the trouble to snoop into my life and declare
I should pay $150,000 in taxes when I only made $50,000 ... jeez.
That's kinda their whole issue. Maybe in a few years they'll figure it out.

I'll be glad to give them a few bucks if they ever want to negotiate
down to something a bit less ... ludicrous.

Oh well. A friend of mine works as a therapist and said of the hundreds
of clients she's had, she's never seen anything more pervasive, invasive,
stressful, and intimidating than the IRS.
Doesn't that sound like terrorism?
That so many people would live in such constant preoccupation and fear?

That's not right. I don't think I want to support that way of being.

Smiley
I couldn't agree more, but that's just the way it is :-(

Yeah, the IRS has got quite a reputation, eh? I used to know a gal who worked for them in NY, and she was just the sweetest thing, so I suspect it's not individuals but rather the agency's reputation that makes people fear them so much.

There are a lot fewer audits these days (differences in the code, plus the IRS has laid off some of its auditing staff, plus they're going for more "bang for their buck" and are generally looking at bigger cases than they used to) but more people need to be audited (with a bad economy, there's more of a temptation to cheat).

I have health insurance for my poodle and I've always wished that the health insurance, flea and heart worm meds were tax deductable. Nothing for dogs or cats is.

Could I claim I need my poodle for my mental health?

List poodle under mental health expenses?