IRS help for pet owners is sorely lacking right now.

Don’t even think, for example, that you can claim your dog as a dependent on your 1040 tax form for 2009. You cannot simply “write off your dog” come time to file taxes. According to the Turbo Tax Support Blog, “Although the IRS doesn’t specifically spell it out, it is tacitly implied that dependents — at least for taxation purposes — must be human.”

H&R Block, meanwhile, reports that the IRS said no way some years ago when a taxpayer tried to write off the boarding costs of his dog as a travel expense when he went away on a business trip. H&R Block called this boneheaded move one of the “most unsual tax deductions ever.” Pull a stunt like this, and you’ll want to find a good tax attorney.

IRS Help for Pet Owners?

But while claiming your dog or cat as a dependent or travel expense (and reaping the windfall from a tax refund) is a five-alarm no-no with the auditors over at the IRS, there’s some hope yet that pet owners can see some form of tax relief. That’s because a U.S. representative from Michigan has introduced a bill known as the HAPPY Act.

The legislation would grant individual taxpayers a $3,500 tax deduction per year (not per pet) for “qualified pet care expenses,” including veterinary costs and other day-to-day costs of raising a pet. Pets that qualify for the tax break would include not only dogs and cats but all sorts of furry and non-furry critters, from horses to fish and turtles, to birds, rabbits and hamsters.

The bill (which NPR boasted as a possible “four-figure tax break for our four-legged friends”) was introduced during the summer of 2009, but as of February 2010 it has gone nowhere. So don’t get your hopes up too much.

Obviously a pets tax deduction like the one imagined by the HAPPY legislation would be welcome IRS help for pet owners. After all, Americans spend a reported $45 billion annually on their pets. And discovering a new tax write-off such as this would encourage pet ownership, not to mention help decrease animal shelter populations across the country.

So… would this mean your dog will soon have to get a Social Security number? Let’s hope not. But any kind of IRS help is always welcome, right?

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