
A tax break for mustache maintenance?
The Million Mustache March in support of the STACHE Act and a $250 tax deduction is all in good fun, but it does point up some absurdities in the tax code.
This post is by Robert W. Wood at Forbes.com.
We Americans do like to tinker with our tax laws. Last year, I reported on a bill to provide tax breaks for facial hair aptly named the STACHE Act: the Stimulus to Allow Critical Hair Expenses. Professor John Yeutter and the American Mustache Institute proposed it, and this story won’t die.
If enacted, it would provide a $250 annual tax incentive for mustached Americans. Yeutter (who sports a handlebar) is an associate professor of accounting and tax policy at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla. He wrote “Mustached Americans and the Triple Bottom Line.”
Since mustached Americans make more money, they should get a tax break for their mustaches, he argues. It was written in good fun, but if you think this sounds silly, you haven't read too many tax bills.
Yeutter claims the costs of maintenance (think trimming and grooming) should be deductible under Internal Revenue Code Section 212. The STACHE Act would offer a $250 deduction for mustache grooming in determining adjusted gross income. You would not have to itemize to claim this deduction, elevating the mustache above such items as attorney fees,which land thousands in the alternative minimum tax. (Post continues below video.)
Organizers now plan the Million Mustache March for the STACHE Act. An application on H&R Block's Facebook page lets you adorn your photo with a past presidential mustache.
Want something less sedentary?
How about marching from the U.S. Capitol to the White House? The march is set for April 1 -- yes, April Fools' Day. H&R Block is behind the campaign offering to donate money to Millions From One, which delivers clean drinking water to those in need.
More from Forbes and MSN Money:
- Are you missing thousands of dollars in tax breaks?
- When a housemate is a dependent (and a tax break)
- Should states woo seniors with tax breaks?
- Relatives in your basement? Tax break
- Tea Partyers, IRS spar over tax status
- Taxes that net a tax deduction
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