9 weirdest tax write-offs

[snopes]

Did you hear the one about the ostrich? The sperm donor? The dog food?

They're just three of the more ingenious tax deductions that creative Americans have devised over the years to counterpunch the tax collector.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/news/20020201a.asp

[Elwood]

Herb Wakeford, a CPA in Raleigh, N.C., recalls a Pittsburgh furniture-store owner who, after years of trying unsuccessfully to sell his business, hired an arsonist to torch the place. The insurance company paid off to the tune of $500,000, which the owner dutifully reported on his income tax return. However, along with taking the proper deductions for the building, its contents and the usual business expenses, he also deducted a $10,000 "consulting fee" he had paid the arsonist. An IRS audit two years later landed them both in jail.

That one is not so much weird as monumentally stupid. How can one be smart enough to plausibly deny involvement in an arson to the satisfaction of law enforcement and insurance and then turn around and essentially admit it to the IRS for a relatively small deduction?

[Sister Ray]

Originally Posted by Elwood

That one is not so much weird as monumentally stupid. How can one be smart enough to plausibly deny involvement in an arson to the satisfaction of law enforcement and insurance and then turn around and essentially admit it to the IRS for a relatively small deduction?

I'm not sure that's true - when a business burned down in my old hometown the same story was being told all around the place. A few years before a video rental place burned down, but that wasn't being told about that fire.

Sister "and the site is now a parking lot" Ray

[Skeptic]

Originally Posted by snopes

Did you hear the one about the ostrich? The sperm donor? The dog food?

They're just three of the more ingenious tax deductions that creative Americans have devised over the years to counterpunch the tax collector.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/news/20020201a.asp

Lothe though I am to admit it, but I was in Amway years ago. I often heard them suggest the one about claiming dog food for your "business's security dog".