Can I deduct my work clothes? I work as a warehouseman in a distribution center.
Generally speaking, no. Protective clothing is an exception. But the protective clothing has to be to protect you, not your regular clothing.
If your job requires it, you can almost always deduct work gloves, steel-toed shoes, respirators, goggles and similar gear. You may not deduct blue jeans, flannel shirts, and similar clothes that you could wear out on the street. (You might not wear them on the street, but because you could, the clothing isn’t deductible.) You can’t deduct the cost of laundering them either.
Years ago, a society matron named Beverly Pevsner lost her husband and fell on hard times. Lacking many job skills, she was able to land a job as a manager of a boutique selling designer women’s clothing. Beverly was required to purchase and wear clothes that the shop sold. She wore the clothes only for work, and she tried to deduct them as a business expense. The court ruled, that, while she led a modest lifestyle and although she wore the clothes only while on the job, obviously her customers were wearing these clothes for general wear. Because Beverly could wear the clothes for personal use, they weren’t deductible.
More recently, another court ruled that Emily Olin wasn’t able to deduct jewelry and formalwear that she wore exclusively while playing at piano concerts. Saying the clothing was adaptable to general use, the court also disallowed her dry cleaning expenses.
How about if you have to wear a uniform to work?
Generally, uniforms are deductible. Wearing the uniform must be a job requirement and the uniform can’t be worn as ordinary clothing. A maid’s uniform, for example. The uniform has to be required by your employer. A union requirement that painters wear a certain type of clothing won’t qualify.
Recently, several well-known retailers have started requiring their salespeople to wear black clothes. But a dress code does not a uniform make: The Tax Court has held that a foreman’s request that employees wear blue work clothes doesn’t make them deductible.
Sometimes, the uniform might only be a partial uniform. For example if you are required to wear a blue golf shirt with the company name embroidered on it, the shirt qualifies as a uniform. But if you must wear ordinary tan khakis with it, the pants don’t count as a uniform.
Army and Navy uniforms are a special case. Uniforms worn by active-duty military personnel are not deductible. These uniforms are considered a personal expense because the uniforms can be worn off duty and take the place of ordinary street clothes. But if local military regulations forbid wearing fatigues while off duty, any cost of buying and maintaining the uniforms beyond the uniform allowance is deductible.
Whether the uniform can be worn as ordinary clothing is a matter of interpretation. If a soldier’s uniform is ordinary wear, could a waitress uniform be worn while off duty? Is a clown or Santa Claus costume “ordinary” clothing? If clothes have the employer’s name on them, they are probably uniforms. But pressing the issue and calling street clothes a “uniform” is probably not worth it.
I’m a nurse. I don’t have enough miscellaneous deductions to itemize my white nurses’ uniforms. They can be expensive. Is there anything that I do?
The tax savvy way to do this is to have the employer to buy the uniforms, if possible. An employer can always deduct the cost of uniforms from the first dollar, which means the uniform expense isn’t subject to the two-percent deductible on miscellaneous deductions. The price is also paid before social security and other taxes are taken into account. This makes it cheaper for the employer to furnish uniforms rather than asking the employee to pick up the cost.
Many fast-food workers are furnished uniforms by their employers. These uniforms are called a “working condition fringe benefit” and aren’t taxable to the employees. As these workers usually don’t make a lot of money anyway, providing a uniform helps the employer promote good grooming and employee morale.
