J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2013: For Preparing Your 2012 Tax Return

19.6 Uniforms and Work Clothes

The unreimbursed cost of uniforms and other apparel, including their cleaning, laundering, and repair, is deductible as an employee job expenses only if the clothes are:

1. Required to keep your job, and

2. Not suitable for wear when not working. A deduction is not allowed if the clothes are suitable for everyday wear, even if you only wear them at work.

The deduction is claimed on Form 2106 (or Form 2106-EZ) and then entered on Line 21 of Schedule A, where it is subject to the 2% AGI floor (19.1).

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Filing Tip

Uniform Required

Your claim of a work clothes deduction is helped if your employer requires you to wear a uniform. Uniform costs of reservists and service persons, in excess of any uniform allowance, are deductible if you are prohibited from wearing the uniform off duty.

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Special work clothes.

Courts have held that the cost of special work clothes that protect you from injury is deductible even if you are not required to wear them to keep your job. This would include safety glasses, safety boots or shoes, hard hats and work gloves.

However, you may not deduct the cost of special clothing, such as aprons and overalls, that protect your regular street clothing. Nor may you deduct the cost of ordinary clothes used as work clothes on the grounds that: (1) they get harder use than customary garments ...