Are certain required expenses tax deductible?

1mom

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DS is a C4C and is finalizing his tax returns. Are his expenses for haircuts, laundry/dry cleaning, computer purchase fees deductible within the 2% of gross income? Is there some list with the tax deduction items available? Also, I believe his expenses for textbooks are not.
 
DS is a C4C and is finalizing his tax returns. Are his expenses for haircuts, laundry/dry cleaning, computer purchase fees deductible within the 2% of gross income? Is there some list with the tax deduction items available? Also, I believe his expenses for textbooks are not.

As a C4C, his income level of less than $7000 will be zeroed out by the standard deduction and single exemption. So there is really no need to itemize
 
Appreciate the "step-saving"
response. Have a great Easter, Capri120.:)
 
Not sure if being in the academy is considered a job, but if so, the dry cleaning would be deductible as they are cleaning a uniform. Haircut is a big iffy because anything that can be used for your personal life like a haircut isnt deductible. That is why buying jeans for work isnt deductible but buying a uniform for work is. Anything that can be used for both work and personal life isnt deductible. Computers would be deductible if required by work. If the academy assigns a laptop to each student, then extra one brought by the student wouldnt be. The real confusion for me is that being in the academy is a hybrid. From what I read you get some sort of salary. So that makes you an employee and yet it is a school. None of these expenses outside of the computer would be considered school expenses and yet some of them would be considered misc business deductions. It may not make a differnce because I doubt any of them itemized anyway. Also, no more misc buisness deductions starting in 2018
 
Issued computers and required textbook purchases are 100% not tax deductible. Don't know off hand about some of the other stuff, but I've definitely seen cadets audited for claiming books and computers. Capri120 is right about standard deduction, etc, taxes at the academy were always pretty quick to get done...
 
Not sure if being in the academy is considered a job, but if so, the dry cleaning would be deductible as they are cleaning a uniform. Haircut is a big iffy because anything that can be used for your personal life like a haircut isnt deductible. That is why buying jeans for work isnt deductible but buying a uniform for work is. Anything that can be used for both work and personal life isnt deductible. Computers would be deductible if required by work. If the academy assigns a laptop to each student, then extra one brought by the student wouldnt be. The real confusion for me is that being in the academy is a hybrid. From what I read you get some sort of salary. So that makes you an employee and yet it is a school. None of these expenses outside of the computer would be considered school expenses and yet some of them would be considered misc business deductions. It may not make a differnce because I doubt any of them itemized anyway. Also, no more misc buisness deductions starting in 2018
I'm pretty sure that my son's return was not itemized throughout his time at USNA even though he had investments from his share of his mom's estate. Nothing too large but dividends and cap gains made an impact. I did his federal and state returns (as well as those for his older brother and younger sister) but never tried to deduct uniforms, etc even though I'm far from conservative in deductions. I don't remember the academy providing itemized statements of those sort of items so it would have been tough to quantify.
 
Not sure if being in the academy is considered a job, but if so, the dry cleaning would be deductible as they are cleaning a uniform. Haircut is a big iffy because anything that can be used for your personal life like a haircut isnt deductible. That is why buying jeans for work isnt deductible but buying a uniform for work is. Anything that can be used for both work and personal life isnt deductible. Computers would be deductible if required by work. If the academy assigns a laptop to each student, then extra one brought by the student wouldnt be. The real confusion for me is that being in the academy is a hybrid. From what I read you get some sort of salary. So that makes you an employee and yet it is a school. None of these expenses outside of the computer would be considered school expenses and yet some of them would be considered misc business deductions. It may not make a differnce because I doubt any of them itemized anyway. Also, no more misc buisness deductions starting in 2018
I'm pretty sure that my son's return was not itemized throughout his time at USNA even though he had investments from his share of his mom's estate. Nothing too large but dividends and cap gains made an impact. I did his federal and state returns (as well as those for his older brother and younger sister) but never tried to deduct uniforms, etc even though I'm far from conservative in deductions. I don't remember the academy providing itemized statements of those sort of items so it would have been tough to quantify.
Type of income or amount of income wouldnt determine if they itemized. A personal who itemizes typically has a mortgage. Anybody else either makes 6 figure salary and their state withholding amount allows them to itemize. Nobody making under 30K is probably itemizing. As a student, none of these expenses can be deducted although some can can be added to cost of attending school. Some of the others can be deducted as a misc employee expense. However I highly doubt books could ever been deducted and the purchase of second computer would definitely not be deductable.
 
Type of income or amount of income wouldnt determine if they itemized. A personal who itemizes typically has a mortgage. Anybody else either makes 6 figure salary and their state withholding amount allows them to itemize. Nobody making under 30K is probably itemizing. As a student, none of these expenses can be deducted although some can can be added to cost of attending school. Some of the others can be deducted as a misc employee expense. However I highly doubt books could ever been deducted and the purchase of second computer would definitely not be deductable.
Starting in 2018, the cadets/mids will have a $12000 standard deduction. Since they will gross just under $13000, if they put away at least $1000 in a qualified savings plan, using form 8880, they can continue to zero out their federal taxes without trying to itemize.
 
Thank you for all the responses. His taxes (with standard deduction) were filed today.
 
Along the same line, except concerning state taxes...
Check your state laws for military exemption. For example, pay for active duty military, which our cadets are, is tax exempt in Missouri. If your cadet's LES shows state withholding, they will need to submit a W-4 to the finance office for the tax exempt status to eliminate this withholding. It saves the time and hassle of filing for the state tax refund. I suspect other states are similar. So, it would be beneficial to check.
 
Along the same line, except concerning state taxes...
Check your state laws for military exemption. For example, pay for active duty military, which our cadets are, is tax exempt in Missouri. If your cadet's LES shows state withholding, they will need to submit a W-4 to the finance office for the tax exempt status to eliminate this withholding. It saves the time and hassle of filing for the state tax refund. I suspect other states are similar. So, it would be beneficial to check.

Thank you!
 
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