Submitted By: Raeone
Answered: April 29, 2014 8:30 am

I paid my property taxes with a credit card that charged a convenience fee. Can I deduct the convenience fee?

If you itemize deductions, likely the convenience fee is tax deductible. The IRS hasn’t said whether this specific convenience fee is deductible as part of your real estate taxes (which has no income threshold) or as a miscellaneous itemized deduction (which has a 2%-of-adjusted-gross income threshold), but prior guidance (IR-2009-37) on a similar topic may be helpful: The IRS ruled that the convenience fee paid when charging federal income taxes was deductible, but only as a miscellaneous itemized deduction.

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Tax Glossary

Deferred compensation

A portion of earnings withheld by an employer or put into a retirement plan for distribution to the employee at a later date. If certain legal requirements are met, the deferred amount is not taxable until actually paid, for example, after retirement.

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