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ludmila1
Feb 6, 2008, 10:58 AM
Hi,
I and my husband intend to file joint return. We will itemize deductions. We have some H1 and employer based filing fee and attorney fee for our green card. Can I deduct that under misc. deductions ? Since it is employment based, it is not a "personal" legal fee.
Which forms should I use 2106?

Thanks,

MukatA
Feb 8, 2008, 10:52 AM
How is the Green card fee job related? Application for H1-b is filed by employer and only employer can deduct these expenses.

Also your standard deduction is $10,700. You will itemize only if your itemized deduction are more than this amount. Employee business related expenses are subject to 2% AGI limit.

ludmila1
Feb 8, 2008, 01:37 PM
Hi Mukat,
Thank you for your answer,
The legal charges in GC that I was referring to were pertaining employment based category. We need it since we write grants which are open ONLY to US-citizens/perm reisdent. If we are not perm res. we can't write those, subsequently can't generate funds for research group or the organisation.

That is why I was asking if they fall under business related expense.
Itemizing ded is our best choice since we have home related expenses.

AtlantaTaxExpert
Feb 13, 2008, 02:04 PM
Ludmila:

Sorry, MukatA is correct.

Green Card legal expenses are considered to be personal legal expenses by the IRS and CANNOT be deducted.