Deducting Pet Expenses

Americans are very attached to their pets – and spend big bucks to keep their tails wagging.  With dogs on prescription drugs, luxury pet clothing, and the possibility of cloning your pet, pet expenses seem to be going through the roof. 

Deducting pet expenses is tricky, but there are a few animal related expenses you may be able to claim: 

• Moving Expenses: If you’ve moved recently for a job, you can claim the cost of moving your pet. 
• Donations to Pet Charities: The same rules apply to charitable donations whether or not they are animal related, so you can deduct donations to non-profit pet charities.
• Animal Business Expenses: Most people can’t deduct animal expenses as a business expense. However, if you operate a business in which you have legitimate animal expenses, you may be able to deduct them.  For example, if your business is training dogs to perform tricks in front of an audience, then you might be able to deduct the expenses associated with maintaining the dogs.
  
• Pet Food Deduction: If you are itemizing, and you plan to use the sales tax deduction instead of the income tax deduction you may be able to deduct the sales tax paid on pet food.