Friday, September 18, 2009

See your doctor first


The United States Tax Court recently denied a Brooklyn tax lawyer’s attempt to claim over $100,000 in payments for prostitutes and pornography as medical expense deductions.

In the case, William G. Halby v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, a U.S. Tax Court judge upheld an Internal Revenue Service determination that Halby pay $21,491 in back taxes and $4,298 in accuracy-related penalties related to disallowed medical expense deductions claimed on his tax returns. Halby also lost a case last September in the New York State Division of Tax Appeals in which he had tried to deduct $322,000 in sex-related charges for 2001-2005.

During 2004 and 2005, Halby frequented prostitutes in New York. His visits were not part of a course of therapy prescribed by his doctor, nor did he ask his doctor to prescribe any sort of sex therapy. Halby kept track of these visits in a journal. The journal included the date, the name of the ‘service provider,’ and the amount. He did not discuss these visits with his doctors afterwards to determine their impact on his health. During 2004 and 2005, Halby purchased pornography and books and magazines on sex therapy, and recorded the dates and amounts of the purchases in his journal.

Regular readers of Pierini Fitness know that I sometimes challenge conventional medicine, the health and wellness advice given by medical doctors, and the prescription medicines they prescribe. This case illustrates, however, that before you try as Halby unsuccessfully did, see your doctor first.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum