10 Pet Related Tax Write-Offs You Should Know About

[heading style=”1″ color=”#006666″ style_color=”#006666″]7. Fostering Expenses[/heading]

Thanks to a couple of recent court cases (namely Van Dusen v. Commissioner in 2011), you can write off expenses for fostering pets as a donation to an approved 501c3 organization.  Fostering expenses eligible for deduction are food, medicines, veterinary bills, crates, garbage bags, and the like. Even a portion of your utilities can be considered expenses as long as a specific area of your home is only used for the care of the animals and nothing else. (Be sure the reimbursed expenses are directly related to the care of that animal.) 

Read more about this landmark decision where an Oakland-based woman successfully argued that caring for dozens of stray cats should be deductible as a charitable contribution, since she was doing it for a local organization (read the case here)

The basic requirements are that the expenses have to be directly related and solely attributable to the rendition of services to a qualified 501(c)(3) organization. In addition, you need to have documentation to support the expenses, and the organization needs to provide written acknowledgement for expenses over $250.  (Source) 

Some of the expenses include pet food and supplies, veterinary bills, and even the paper towels you may need to clean up after your foster. If your foster operation is large enough you may be able to claim a portion of your home utilities as well.

You can even deduct 14 cents per mile for trips made solely for the organization.

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