Van Dusen v. Commissioner,

[kcjenkins]

In a groundbreaking victory for animal rescuers around the country, one California animal foster fought the Internal Revenue Service in court – and won! As a result of Van Dusen v. Commissioner, animal rescuers nationwide that are fostering dogs and/or cats for approved charities may claim the expenses during tax time.

http://dogingtonpost...our-foster-dog/

[rfassett]

Score one for the good guys!

[kcjenkins]

I agree. Also, it does cover more than animal rescue, it's a well written [iMHO] ruling that clarifies when a t/p can deduct costs of assisting charitable organizations.

[Lion EA]

The lesson is document, document, document. She did NOT get to deduct the $12,000 she listed. She lost over $5,000 of her deductions for not getting contemporaneous acknowledgements from the charities. She lost more deductions that could not be directly tied to charities, such as DMV fees. And, she lost some percentages of expenses that could not be separated from expenses for her personal pets.

I'm glad they went into such detail of how they arrived at their decisions.

[rfassett]

Agreed, Lion. Those were my thoughts as well. Document ad nausem. The good news, as you point out, is the court opened that door wide open - as long as the documentation is in order.

[kcjenkins]

Yes, it's great when they give us such a detailed ruling, that lets us know just what they need to allow the the deduction. And it gives us solid support for the deductions we claim, as long as we make sure they have the documentation. It's so much easier when we can give them a print out that clearly tells them why we can't take what they can not document.