Prostitutes, porno not legitimate tax deductions, U.S. court rules

2009-09-25 National Post 		   Bookmark and Share  E-Mail
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A New York state lawyer's medical expense deductions totaling over US$125,000 for money he spent on prostitutes and pornography was denied by the U.S. Tax Court this past week. William G. Halby, a tax lawyer with McMillan, Constabile, Maker & Perone, LLP in Westchester, pointed to several book and magazine articles discussing the "positive effects of sex therapy" and argued that his expenses should therefore be deductible as medical expenses for tax purposes. The U.S. tax rules, however, do not allow medical expenses that are "illegal" to be deducted and therefore denied more than US$100,000 of prostitutes' fees he claimed over a two-year period. As for the US$25,000 of porn and sex texts, the court found they were "personal items."