Can You Claim Dog Food on Your Taxes? Important Facts to Know
By Lorre Luther
Updated on
You might be wondering if it’s possible to claim your dog’s food as a deduction. Unfortunately, while we understand that your dog is a member of your family, the IRS simply doesn’t see it that way. Unless your dog is a working dog or a service animal as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), you’ll have trouble legally deducting their food from your income for tax purposes. It’s best to consult with a qualified tax advisor to make sure any deductions you take are correct.
Service Animal Deductions
Owners can often deduct service animal-related expenses from their income. To qualify, your animal must meet ADA requirements for service animals.1 Only animals that have been “individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability.” are considered service animals. In addition, the “task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability.”
Dogs that assist vision or hearing-impaired individuals are the most common service animals. Many animals trained to help people diagnosed with PTSD also fall under the rule if they’ve been trained to perform and carry out tasks such as interrupting nightmares and flashbacks. Dogs trained to alert diabetic owners of low blood sugar levels and epileptics of impending attacks also qualify as service animals under the ADA.
Emotional support animals that “provide comfort just by being with a person” don’t qualify as service animals under the ADA. According to the regulations, emotional support animals aren’t considered service animals “because they have not been trained to perform a specific job or task.” Animals that have been trained to “sense oncoming anxiety attacks or remind those diagnosed with depression to take their medication” are considered service animals under the ADA.
Owners of service animals can deduct food and veterinary care under the Medical Expense Deduction, but they’ll need to have spent a substantial amount of money to meet the IRS requirement for this deduction. Expenses only count if they total more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income in any given year. Ensure the proper documentation is set up and ready to go before claiming the deduction; the IRS can always ask for proof of your diagnosis during an audit.
Working and Performing Animals
You can deduct your dog’s veterinary and food expenses if they either work and get paid; dogs that perform in movies or star in money-making YouTube videos are considered working dogs.
If your dog stars in movies, their food qualifies as a business expense, and if your dogs are the stars at your dog cafe, you can deduct the costs for their food and medical care under the same exemption. You’ll need to keep receipts and be able to document how much you’ve spent on specifics such as food and veterinary care. Make sure to keep track of how many hours your dog actually works and what they do during those hours.
Food and veterinary care for breeding animals, guard dogs, and farm dogs involved in herding sometimes qualify for business expense deductions. Breeding animals must be part of a profit-oriented business and not a hobby, and guard dogs must guard a place of business and not a home to qualify. Farm dogs cannot double as family pets, or the IRS will disallow the deduction.
Foster Animal Deductions
If you foster an adorable dog until they find a forever home, you might be able to deduct expenses related to their care, such as food and any medical bills, as a charitable donation. To qualify, you’ll need to be involved in an official fostering program with a registered non-profit organization. Remember that most organizations that arrange foster care for dogs provide food and medical care as part of the deal, making this a rarely used deduction. Unfortunately, taking care of a stray dog for a few days until you can find them a home doesn’t count, according to the IRS.
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Featured Image Credit: Olena Yakobchuk, Shutterstock
