Pets as deductible dependents?
Actor Robert Davi has an interesting piece in the Washington Times, where he tries to make the case for allowing pets to be claimed on tax returns as dependents the same as children. While this would be great for those of us who have a lot of animal companions and no human kids, anyone can see that it hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming reality.
The definition problems alone would make it impossible to control. If only dogs and cats are allowed to be claimed, the cries of discrimination from owners of other kinds of pets would be deafening. Critters such as birds, fish, snakes, horses, and sheep can all provide the same benefits as Mr. Davi describes.
Another big mess would be the need to assign Social Security or other identification numbers for each dependent animal. It was a reality that after IRS started requiring SSNs to be shown for dependents, the number of claimed dependents magically dropped dramatically; so that is a necessity.
Labels: Dependents