tax question?

Question

my barber told me if i keep all my receipts from everything (including the haircut receipt) that i could get money back from my taxes... is that true? how does that work? or is it only for independent business people?

thanks

Answer 1

I didn't know they were teaching tax preparation in barber schools these days. Just a suggestion but you might want to check any information regarding taxes with a tax professional. Only in rare circumstances could the information your barber gave you be applicable. I would not even guess what he was talking about.

Answer 2

The general rule (from the IRS) is that personal expenses are not deductible for income tax purposes. The exceptions are mortgage interest, charitable contributions, state income or sales taxes, medical expenses, property taxes, etc which all have specific lines on Schedule A, Itemization's, or instructions within. As someone else mentioned, you tend to need a lot of these other expenses to benefit from itemization.

Most people are very misleading (intentionally or not) when they claim something is tax deductible or something similar. The answer should always be COULD be deductible for income taxes. The tax law is complex and shouldn't be generalized.

Answer 3

Your barber might have been talking about deducting sales tax, if haircuts are sales taxable in your state.

The last couple years, if you itemized, you could deduct either the sum of state and local taxes, or else sales taxes. For sales tax, there were tables by state and family size showing an allowable deduction, and if you had receipts to prove that you'd paid more, you could deduct the actual amounts. I have heard that the sales tax deduction is no longer in effect for 2006 taxes, but have not had my training yet for tax prep for this coming season, so don't know for sure.

But in any case, the cost of the haircut itself would not have been deductible.

Answer 4

You can't deduct the costs of haircuts unless you are a news or TV personality or public figure. Your barber fails to understand that deductions are only allowable for legitimate BUSINESS expenses (and for charitable donations and some medical expenses, as well as mortgage interest payments). So, unless you have thousands of dollars of expenses, you're most likely better off with the standard deduction).