Here's a cute piece I found on Yahoo titled 9 weirdest tax write-offs. It details the stories of people who tried to take, well, let's just say "very unusual" tax deductions. My two personal favorites:
- 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. The IRS disallowed the "consulting fee" and slapped on $6,500 in additional taxes, penalties and interest.
- There was a time when deductions were as plentiful as dinner mints. "Many years ago when I was a young clerk, a local CPA kept a very large glass bowl filled with receipts in his office," says Nancy Reynolds of Reynolds & Associates in Naples, Fla. "If a client came in and was a little shy of deductions, they merely dipped into the bowl and helped themselves to some of those glorious deductions."
If you want a few laughs, or at least a smile or two, check these out today.
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