bucki4lyfe
Michigan Sucks
Can these items be written off on your taxes?!
I used to be a financial advisor in a previous career (many of my clients were military), and from that perspective, yes you can.
As was previously said, you can write them off if you itemize. In case anyone doesn't know what that means: Everybody who files gets a "standard deduction"...if you're single it's about $5,300 or so. The gov't does this because it knows everybody will have deductions, just not many will have more than $5,300 worth, so the govt gives everyone a little credit, reducing the number of itemizers each tax year.
Therefore, USNGRL, if you keep your receipts (as I certainly did) for all of your uniform purchases, let's call it $1,500, you could put that in the correct field in the itemized deductions tax form. To help you get to that magic $5,300 number (because, again, if you can't find deductions for more than that, it's not worth itemizing, but if you can, then you'll save yourself some cash), you can also deduct things from your federal tax bill like state and local tax, certain business expenses, certain education expenses. So, if you made enough money that your other taxes and other deductable expenses were $4,500, you would end up having a $6,000 itemized deduction, therefore, saving a little bit more on your tax bill than the normal $5,300 standard deduction.
I am not telling everyone to itemize on your taxes and in no way is this a recommendation for anyone, just a hypothetical scenario. Please contact a tax professional and/or financial advisor for advice on your SPECIFIC situation.