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predecessor, the Board of Tax Appeals, recognized more than 60
years ago that without firm limits, taxpayers would seek to
deduct
The fee to the doctor, but for whose healing
service the earner of the family income could not
leave his sickbed; the cost of the laborer's
raiment, for how can the world proceed about its
business unclothed; the very home which gives us
shelter and rest and the food which provides
energy, might all by an extension of the same
proposition be construed as necessary to the
operation of business and to the creation of
income. [Citations omitted.]
Smith v. Commissioner, 40 B.T.A. 1038-1039 (1939) (citation
omitted), affd. 113 F.2d 114 (2d Cir. 1940).
In extreme cases, this can even lead to a kind of deduction
fever:
“Itemizing? What's that, Satan?”
“Well, you see, Josh, now that you're not just a
salaried copy editor but also a freelance
television critic, you can file a Schedule C and
deduct your legitimate business expenses....
So I went home, waded as usual through the pot
smoke of my roommates, shut the door, and looked
around my room. What was a “legitimate business
expense”? Okay, I’m a television critic, so... the
television! Yes! Because I need something to
criticize!
Okay, so the television ... And then--yeah, the
VCR, because I can’t watch every episode of “T.J.
Hooker.” ...
And, of course, the videotapes. ... And the
replacement labels for the tapes, which I get from
Radio Shack. ... Oh!--and the TV Guide, which
guides me to the television! ... And the books of
television criticism I've bought. And actually,
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