Filing your yearly personal or business tax returns is an important financial chore, and you might not think a sense of humour will be much help. That’s until you see a list of funny deductible expenses from around the world and realise what they have in common – that even if they might seem strange, they were all determined to be fair under relevant national or regional tax regulations.

Most of us have only a vague idea of what the South African Revenue Service (SARS) allows as legitimate deductible expenses from personal or business income. As a result, if you’re preparing and filing your own tax returns, you might miss certain deductions, or mistakenly claim deductions that don’t apply. A specialist tax adviser with a comprehensive understanding of SARS regulations, who also has access to your personal and business financial records to identify legitimate expenses, will be better equipped to help you reduce your tax liability.

The 10 examples below should be all the motivation you need to find out if any strange-but-true deductions apply to your income. But a word of warning – we’ve chosen a mix of the most bizarre deductions from around the world under several tax codes. SARS has very different rules to these – so consult a professional, if you want your tax return to end up as just a funny internet story, rather than a cautionary tale.

1. Moving out of your parent’s house

In Italy, people between the ages of 20 and 30 can get a yearly tax deduction of almost €1,000 if they leave the parental nest and rent their own place. It’s one of several deductions that Italy offers to boost the rental property market, but it clashes with the traditional culture of multi-generational family households and rising living costs – a challenge it might also face if introduced in South Africa.

2. Garden services

In the United States, if you run a business from home where you receive clients, you can deduct a portion of your lawncare, landscaping or garden maintenance costs as a business expense. If you work from home (WFH) in South Africa, it’s worthwhile to ask a tax consultant what WFH business expenses you can deduct.

3. Breast implant depreciation

In 1994 in Wisconsin, USA, an exotic dancer with the stage name Chesty Love successfully claimed depreciation on her breast implants as a deductible business expense. When her claim was upheld in court, it opened the door for millions of other entertainers to claim cosmetic surgery as a business necessity.  

4. Body oil and body paint

Sadly, you can’t claim a deduction just because you like the way body oil makes your skin feel, or you enjoy giving yourself a dramatic look with body paint. But in the US, professional bodybuilders can claim a deduction for the oil they use to make their muscles gleam – and models and stage performers can claim similar expenses for make-up and body paint, provided it’s solely for professional use. If you work in any of these fields in South Africa, it’s worth asking your tax adviser what unusual deductions you might qualify for.

5. Creating ‘British’ computer games

Tax authorities in the UK offer a video games tax relief benefit to British companies creating games that fulfil certain conditions. One of these is that the game must ‘pass a cultural test and be certified as British’, which seems likely to cause a lot of heated arguments.

6. Clarinet lessons and other alternative medical treatments

In another surprise case in the USA in 1962, a parent claimed the cost of their child’s clarinet lessons and was granted the deduction. The lessons had been prescribed by an orthodontist to correct an abnormality in the child’s jaw, so they were considered a necessary medical expense. Many tax codes around the world follow the USA’s example and allow deductions for alternative treatments prescribed by medical professionals for specific conditions, such as music lessons to help those with mental health issues, tutors for children with learning disabilities, or even the cost of a swimming pool to treat someone with arthritis.

7. Animal costs

Simply having a pet won’t qualify you for a deduction, but in many jurisdictions, you do get a tax break on the costs of keeping a service animal – including healthcare, food, grooming, training, and the cost of the animal itself. A guide dog is an example of a qualifying service animal, but a business keeping a cat for pest control could also qualify.

8. Donating a dead deer

This is no doubt the weirdest tax break on our list, but we had to include it in case any of you have a dead deer lying around that you don’t know what to do with. Unfortunately, it only works in South Carolina, USA, where you’re entitled to a $50 tax credit if you donate a dead deer to a charitable institution.

9. Protecting (exceptional) trees

In Hawaii, taxpayers can get a yearly $3,000 deduction on their state taxes by protecting and preserving any ‘exceptional trees’ on land that they own. These are indigenous species that are protected due to their age and cultural, historical or aesthetic significance. It’s an innovative use of tax incentives to further environmental conservation.

10. Donating wedding leftovers

From leftover food at the reception to outfits that you’ll never wear again, a wedding can generate a lot of costs that may not automatically qualify for deductions. But most tax codes allow for deductions on charitable donations, up to a specified limit. If you donate all your wedding leftovers to registered charities, you can claim the value of the donation as a deduction.

Most legitimate tax deductions aren’t as unusual as the ones above, but they can save you money. Nedbank can help with expert advice about reducing your personal and business tax liabilities.