Miscellaneous Tax Deductions – Do’s and Don’ts
From: Bankrate.com
“Sometimes, technically deductible expenses are wasted because they don’t meet other Internal Revenue Service rules. This is often the case for most of the miscellaneous deductions found on Schedule A.
The roadblock preventing the write-off of these assorted expenses is the requirement that they total more than 2 percent of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income, or AGI. That means a taxpayer with $50,000 in AGI must come up with more than $1,000 in miscellaneous deductions before they do him any tax good. Even then, just the amount over $1,000 is deductible. So the 50-grand filer with $1,750 in tax-allowable miscellaneous expenses can only deduct $750, not the full $1,750.
While the 2 percent limit is tough for many filers to reach, it’s not impossible. You just need to know exactly what the IRS considers as allowable miscellaneous deductions. The expenses fall into three general categories: …”