Business owners, you may be asking yourself if I am being serious. Can you really deduct your pet’s expenses? In most cases, you cannot deduct pet food and vet bills. However, I have had a couple of clients who have successfully deducted their pet’s expenses. If this is something you want to do, you should talk to an accountant in Reno, Nevada who has ample experience in tax preparation.
Let me start out by saying that this is something that we come across all the time, but rarely will fly with the IRS. Let me give you a couple examples of clients who deducted their pets and why they were able to do so.
The first example is a tile manufacturer. This client had a couple of German Shepherds who stayed in the shop all the time. My client deducted their food, water and vet bills. This client was actually audited and the deductions were upheld. The auditor let the deductions stand because the dogs were considered security for the evening.
Another case of a client who successfully deducted their pet expenses was a farmer/rancher. This client has a number of cats, and all of the expenses for the cats were deducted. The ranching operation was audited, but the auditor upheld the deductions because the cats keep the mice down in the barns.
Now let me give you an example of a case were pet deductions are not justified. We had one client who ran a gym. They have a couple of dogs who are always running around the gym and greeting customers. They argued that the dogs were used as advertising because all the clients would talk about them.
The rule for whether you can deduct something as a business expense is if it is ordinary, necessary and reasonable. In the case of the gym, it is not necessary or ordinary to be able to deduct pet expenses. If you think you may be able to deduct your pet related experiences, you should contact an accountant in Reno, Nevada and have them help you with your tax preparation.
Reno’s Best CPA,
Tim Nelson