Can I use a theft as a tax write-off?

Question

So, while I was doing my reserve duty (I travel 4 hours to get where I need to be), my car got broken into while I was staying up in the hotel that the Army provided.

Nevertheless, about 800$ worth of stuff was taken, and to add insult to injury, I now have to shell out the deductible (250$) for the car and another (250$) to reclaim the "estimated" value of my stuff.

Can I use this as a tax-writeoff, since I was at drill on official business?

Seriously, this sucks so much, any advice would help!

Answer 1

yes you can use it as a write off.

you dont even have to be working or on business while being robbed and it could be a tax write off.

anything you loose whether it be stolen or whatever can be written off....its just up to the IRS to accept it or not.

Answer 2

normally no, Tax Code Section 165 handles this sort of thing.

Based on this, the theft must qualify as a casualty loss, which simply means a sudden, unexpected, or unusual identifiable event.

And your case does qualify...basically because it wasn't your fault. Do you have a police report?

there are limits to how much you can deduct. first the net losses are reduced by 100 dollars, and it is then reduced by 10% of your years adjusted gross income.

So for you in this case, it appears you have a claim, but if I m reading this right, you lost $800 plus the $250 deductible minus the money you got back from the insurance of $800. Which means that the loss is only 250, but lets assume for a minute that no insurance was paid, then $800 is your loss minus the $100 and reduced by 10% of your AGI, so what that means is if you made more then $7000 for the year, you would not be able to collect on the claim.

Sorry about that, but your better off just to grin and bear it. It does suck though!

Answer 3

yes but any reimbursement from the insurance company would have to be deducted from claim.

Answer 4

You can't claim the deductible, but you can claim the value of uninsured stuff.