tion fees are not deductible. State tax on gasoline (rather high in some states) is a deductible item, but the Federal portion of gasoline tax is not (CCH 3386).

Many other taxes are deductible; property taxes, state income taxes, state disability insurance tax, to name a few. However, licenses for pets are never deductible.

The Tax Commissioner has ruled that money received by an automobile owner from fellow employees for transportation to and from work (car pcols) is actually a reimbursement of expenses incurred and, therefore, not a portion of the taxable income of the individual, nor are the expenses of such a car pool, should they exceed the income therefrom, deductible, except where they would be deductible under some other circumstances, such as part of a business (CCH 3749).

More than heterosexuals, I think homosexuals should be acquainted with the special deductions permitted for educational expenses, since so large a number of homosexuals never cease their educational efforts. A stagnation at high school level such as is common in other classes of society does not seem so wide-spread among homophiles. A taxpayer can deduct expenses for education (including the expense of travel away from home primarily to obtain education) undertaken primarily for the purpose of maintaining or improving skills required in his employment or trade or for meeting the express requirements of his employer. Such expenses are not deductible if the education is undertaken to obtain a new position or learn a new trade (CCH 3550). For example, if I enroll in a course in Federal Income Tax, the entire cost of the course, books, tuition, travel, etc., is deductible; however, if I enroll in a sculpture course (even if I intend to give up tax work and become a full time sculptor at the

end of the course) I may not deduct any of the expenses. If, on the other hand, my friend Joe, who is a professional dancer, goes to New York each summer to study at a famous dance school, he may deduct all costs incurred, including the cost of traveling to New York. Undoubtedly, when he is not at the school, Joe will have a ball in New York, but that does not change the fact that the trip was made primarily to study dancing.

On the subject of travel or moving costs, there is another point of law that may be of wide interest. If an individual is transferred from one place of employment or official station to another for permanent duty, in the interest of his employer, any allowance or reimbursement for cost of moving his family, household goods or personal effects is not taxable as income-if the total amount received is spent in moving. If his expenses are greater than the allowance, however, the excess paid by him is not deductible, and if he moves to accept a new position, any allowance or reimbursement paid to him becomes a part of his taxable income (CCH 3746). This may not seem to be altogether fair and just, but that is the way the law reads, and it seems to stay that way from year to year.

The deduction for medical expenses covers many items, among which are: payments to chiropractors, optometrists, osteopaths, Christian Science practitioners, psychiatrists and, of course, medical doctors and surgeons; medicines and drugs, whether or not purchased as prescriptions (aspirin, cold tablets, vitamins, etc.); amounts paid for transportation primarily for and essential to medical care (transportation to your family doctor in New York, let's say, for a medical check-up, from your new home in Los Angeles, provided you can show that you have been the patient of this doctor for some years prior to moving

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