Surprising Ways Your Pet Could Get You A Tax Deduction

Turns out your love for Fido can mean money in your pocket in the form of tax returns.

Surprising Ways Your Pet Could Get You A Tax Deduction
Getty Images

We all love Fido and Rover and insert-weird-pet-name-here, and now we have a reason to love our furry friends even more. Two words: tax break. 

Sounds too good to be true, but it's time to file, and Daily Finance put together a list of instances when good ol' Fluffy can mean a tax return. 

Some include: 

--If you move: The website says you can deduct the expenses of moving your pet. Typically, the move has to be due to work. 

--If pets are even sort of your profession: If you race or breed animals or have show dogs, some of those expenses could be deducted. And if you've gone as far as turning your love into a business, it could be possible to deduct all of your expenses. 

Guide and guard animals are also potential write-offs.

And thanks to the Van Dusen v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue ruling in the U.S. Tax Court, fostering pets may also lead to tax deductions. 

Another interesting way to write off some tax dollars is to set up a trust for your pet. Financial website Bankrate spoke with a law professor who said most states allow pet trusts.

And our most surprising way for you to see some green returned? Writing off you pet's food.

Personal finance website Kiplinger cites a couple who wrote off the cost of cat food for feral felines. These cats took care of snakes in their junkyard, which in turn made it safer for people visiting. The case went to court, and the IRS agreed it was a deductible cost.

Not bad, Kitty Kitty Meow Meow. Not bad. 

This video includes images from Getty Images and music from Podington Bear / CC BY NC 3.0.