Chapter 19

Deducting Job Costs and Other Miscellaneous Expenses

On Schedule A (Form 1040), you may be able to deduct a portion of miscellaneous expenses covering a wide and varied range of items, such as employee travel and entertainment expenses, work clothes expenses, union and employee professional dues, investment expenses, legal expenses, tax preparation expenses, and educational expenses. They share a significant limitation: the 2% of adjusted gross income (AGI) floor. If your expenses do not exceed this floor, you may not deduct them. If the expenses exceed the floor, only the excess is deductible. Even before applying the 2% AGI floor, employees who incur unreimbursed meal and entertainment costs must reduce their meal and entertainment costs by 50% (20.25). After applying the ...

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