…from The Hill….
The IRS said Friday that taxpayers can deduct the costs of purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE) meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from their taxes.
In a Friday announcement, the IRS said that taxpayers who’ve spent at least 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income on PPE such as masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes “for the primary purpose” of curbing the pandemic can deduct those costs from their taxes.
“Amounts paid for personal protective equipment, such as masks, hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes, for the primary purpose of preventing the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19 PPE) are treated as amounts paid for medical care under § 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code,” the IRS said….
7.5% of your gross income?
I doubt if many people can prove that.I mean say a person with a gross income of just $20000 would have to prove that they had spent like $1500 on such things.Thats pretty unrealistic.
I wouldn’t be surprised if james put this here because he plans on deducting it. He once told us he works at some store (or maybe he was only helping out there that day) so he probably was more at risk for COVID-19 than most people.
Or maybe he didn’t read the article close enough to recognize that you had to spend 7.5% of your income on PPE in order to deduct it. As Jack pointed out, almost no one will legally qualify for this deduction.
Actually i DID see the crazy assed threshold….
I’m glad people here checked this out….
From several seasons preparing taxes for clients of H&R Block, I think that this article has just misstated the rules.
If you spend ore than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income on any and all medical expenses (health insurance, doctors, therapy, hospitals, clinics, medicine, even such travel and accommodation or exercise equipment that are strictly necessary to health care), then you can deduct the amount, and only the amount that exceeds 7.5 % of AGI on Schedule A.
I’m almost certain that the IRS is just adding PPE to the list of medical expenses that are deductible to the extent they exceed AGI.
Example, I earn $100,000 (I wish) in the 2020 or 2021 tax year.
If I spend $6,000 on eligible medical expenses, then I can deduct nothing.
If, however, I should spend $16,000 on all eligible medical expenses (including but not confined to PPE), then I can deduct $8,500 (16% – 7.5% = 8.5 %).
Would u have to document those expenses DSD?
Generally speaking, yes (although a defensible estimate of such intangibles as mileage might also count).
Thanks….
WTF is gonna keep track of this?
I assume accountants would know a sage number to est. against allowances computer program…
Unless you’re fairly sure that the sum of all your itemized deductions might be significantly greater, you might save yourself time, effort and research by just taking the Standard Deduction.
My memory’s fuzzy and tax law might have changed (thanks to a wise and beneficent Congress), but you might still need Schedule A to itemize the Mortgage Interest deduction, if that’s something you might qualify for.
The standard deduction is how they screwed us people in tax heavy states in 2017…
James, I’m not sure it was the standard deduction that hurt those who pay high state taxes.
What Congress did, as I understand it, is to cap the amount of state & local taxes that could be deducted as items on Schedule A to $10,000.
But the Standard Deduction, that wouldn’t be affected one way or the other since those who take it are not itemizing your taxes (or medical bills or mortgage interest).
I hope you’re using a tax preparer (or else an extremely good computer program), because you seem to be pretty blurry on some fairly elementary income tax basics.
Let me make that paragraph more logical and grammatical:
But the Standard Deduction wouldn’t be affected one way or the other since those who take it are not itemizing their taxes (or medical bills or mortgage interest).
The cap excludes the higher taxes deductions…
SALT….
There was screaming about this coming from higher taxed Democrats…
The standard deduction was bumped up but a bit but it is in adequate…
As i have pointed out here
The 2017 tax cut was an increase for some middle class earners in those in higher taxed states…
Yes i have an account and the shit head took away my deduction for this place…
They also screwed people who work their business from home…
I hope Biden & Co get every damn dollar back….
But remember folks…
Democrats in low economy states tend to vote like Republican’s in those same states…
There is NOT $15 hour national min wage…
There won’t be….
Bloomberg
A New York Democratic lawmaker says he won’t back any tax increases that Biden proposes to pay for infrastructure unless there’s also a repeal of the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions
The IRS did a truly terrible job in phrasing its announcement, so it’s hardly surprising (though not altogether forgivable) that news outlets repeated or magnified the confusion.
The IRS announcmentt begins:
Announcement 2021-7
This announcement notifies taxpayers that amounts paid for personal protective equipment, such as masks, hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes, for the primary purpose of preventing the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19 PPE) are treated
as amounts paid for medical care under § 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). … [my emphasis]
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/a-21-07.pdf
But you don’t have to spend 7.5 % of your income on PPE alone, but 7.5% on “amounts paid for medical care”.
Remember that you read this here first.
I didn’t break the story, but as the AP motto goes, “Get it first, but get it right!”
He, he
Yes DSD!