dystopia

Maybe I’m going to set some people off about this subject, but I think pet expenses, especially medical and/or prescription stuff should be deductible when you own a pet or pets. Veterinary visits, shots, having your animal spayed/neutered and protected against fleas, ticks and parasites are all part of being a responsible pet owner, yet you see no tax benefits from all the money you spent taking care of your animal. It seems like common sense to me that pet expenses would be something that you could tax deduct, even if the government didn’t want  you to deduct the total cost, maybe they could give you something small for owning and proving you are taking care of a pet. A small credit, even if it is little, would be nice for many pet owners. Pet owners everywhere would be shouting thank you, finally! Some people don’t have kids, yet they still have expenses for taking care of another being because they have pets.

Not to mention that pet care is ridiculously expensive! Taking an animal to a vet visit for anything means forking out a bunch of money. When I first began working and then filing taxes, one of my first questions to the tax people was if pet’s were tax deductible because I had thought it made sense that they would be, but of course have know found out they really aren’t. I think this should be changed. Maybe you shouldn’t be able to deduct expenses like food, litter, toys or other things like that. But surely you should be able to deduct medical/prescription expenses and surgeries or procedures that animals need or must have done. Having a pet is like having a kid, yeah it’s not a human and it’s a furry kid at that, but shouldn’t people get some sort of tax break for it? I mean really! What are your thoughts? You agree/disagree? What if we got our congressmen and women to draw up a bill to pass and got the IRS to change their mind on the stance? I think it would be good.