Learn about Possible Deductions when Filing a Tax Return
Male: Are other deductions possible when filing my tax return?
Art: Yes, there are two more categories, one is casualty losses. If you had a casualty loss, fire, flood, hurricanes, storm damage, then it’s fair value, whether property immediately before the casualty less the fair value with the property immediately afterwards. From that number, you subtract anything the insurance company pays you. 10 percent of your adjusted gross income and a hundred dollars, 10 percent plus one hundred dollars, and if you have anything left over you have a casualty loss deduction. The next category is miscellaneous itemize deductions, so I’m a W2 employee. I incur expenses on behalf of my employer that I don’t get reimbursed for, or can't reimbursed for. I add all of those expenses up, I put those on form 2106, 2-1-0-6, that could become a miscellaneous deduction. If I had tax preparation fees from a prior year, that’s a miscellaneous deduction as well. Union dues, if I’m a W2 employee and have to buy my own uniforms, that’s a miscellaneous deduction. So there are various categories for items that go in there, the one thing to remember is they are limited to two percent of your AGI. So you add up all your miscellaneous deductions, you subtract two percent of your adjusted gross income, bottom line of page one, whatever is left over is miscellaneous deductions for schedule A. There’s one more category, and that’s called gambling losses. So if you’re a frequent buyer of lottery tickets, or you buy raffle tickets from people selling the raffle tickets, or you are a visitor to one of the myriad of casinos or crew, or ships that are around. Or you frequent native American reservations and gamble money, gambling losses go up on schedule A, but only to the extent of gambling winnings, there’s a limit. So no matter how much you spent for lottery tickets, if you didn’t win anything, you have no deduction. If the church is running a raffle, that’s not a charitable contribution, that’s a game of chance, that’s gambling, so unless you have gambling winnings, that’s not a deduction. It’s not a charitable contribution nor is it a gambling loss.