Economics Finance

Reducing weight is almost everybody’s dream. You join gym, take medicines and improve your diet. All of these are expensive propositions and the taxman was not at all concerned about your expense on them. However, obesity is now considered as a serious threat to health and your spending to control it may be eligible for deduction out of your income.

If you are diagnosed by your doctor for obesity, he will advise you for weight loss treatment. Some other problems related to obesity like heart disease, hypertension or high levels of cholesterol may also force your doctor to prescribe for such treatment.

This treatment may include a lot of things – hospital based treatment including surgery, use of medicines, counseling for diet, joining programs like weight watchers and behavioral counseling. Expenses on all of these can be legitimately claimed as deduction on your tax return.

However, you cannot claim this deduction without knowing the requirements of IRS. Here are some important tips if you want to claim your expenditure on weight loss treatment – Continue reading ‘Tax Deduction For Losing Your Weight!’ »

Tax deductions are what gets you bigger refunds. If you itemize your tax return you need to have a good idea of what you can deduct. This checklist covers most of the major tax deductions.

Tax Deduction checklist

* Form 1098, or your mortgage statement.
* Form 1098 if you purchased a home in previous tax year, and prior tax return if you refinanced in prior year and are deducting points on that loan over its life,
* Investment interest expense: Brokers’ statements showing any margin interest paid and loan statements for loans taken out to purchase investments
* Losses due to theft etc. with description of property and insurance reports showing reimbursement or any cancelled checks showing value of property.
* Charitable donations: bills receipts or cancelled checks for cash donations, mileage records for charitable purposes, receipts from charitable agency with estimated value in the case of property donations, prior years’ tax returns for any unused charitable contributions. Continue reading ‘Tax Deduction Checklist – Did You Miss Any of These Deductions?’ »