Itemized deductions

[Adam H. Kerman]

Starting to work on a tax return, I was going through a lengthy list of
expenses to see which fit into various itemized deductions on Schedule
A. The person never get to take casualty and theft losses.

There's a dog who is always taking towels and anything else that smells
like food. These items are indeed destroyed. This is what the tax code
was getting at, yes?

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[Tom Russ]

On Friday, March 24, 2023 at 3:51:52 PM UTC-7, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Starting to work on a tax return, I was going through a lengthy list of
> expenses to see which fit into various itemized deductions on Schedule
> A. The person never get to take casualty and theft losses.
>
> There's a dog who is always taking towels and anything else that smells
> like food. These items are indeed destroyed. This is what the tax code
> was getting at, yes?

It doesn't appear that this will qualify as a dog isn't a federally declared disaster.
The rules (Pub 547) say:
"Deductible losses. For tax years 2018 through 2025, if you are an individual, casualty losses of
personal-use property are deductible only if the loss is attributable to a federally declared disaster
(federal casualty loss). "

For a lot more information, see https://www.irs.gov/publications/p547

Even if it did qualify, those would need to be very expensive towels, as one would need to
(a) Deduct $100 from each individual loss.
(b) Deduct 10% of Adjusted Gross Income from the total of all losses.

Finally, the total of all itemized deductions would need to exceed the standard deduction for
it to make sense itemizing.

[Adam H. Kerman]

Tom Russ <tar...@google.com> wrote:
>On Friday, March 24, 2023 at 3:51:52 PM UTC-7, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

>>Starting to work on a tax return, I was going through a lengthy list of
>>expenses to see which fit into various itemized deductions on Schedule
>>A. The person never get to take casualty and theft losses.

>>There's a dog who is always taking towels and anything else that smells
>>like food. These items are indeed destroyed. This is what the tax code
>>was getting at, yes?

>It doesn't appear that this will qualify as a dog isn't a federally declared disaster.

He is a very naughty dog.

>The rules (Pub 547) say:
>"Deductible losses. For tax years 2018 through 2025, if you are an individual, casualty losses of
>personal-use property are deductible only if the loss is attributable to a federally declared disaster
>(federal casualty loss). "

>For a lot more information, see https://www.irs.gov/publications/p547

What about a theft? The dog clearly intended to deprive someone else of
the towel, and he wants to be chased. I suppose it's not a theft in any
state's criminal code.

>Even if it did qualify, those would need to be very expensive towels, as one would need to
>(a) Deduct $100 from each individual loss.

Good point. He's never swiped anything that expensive. At some point, he will.