Quote Originally Posted by JLC View Post
This isn't really true. It wouldn't be helpful at all in any emergency situation. This isn't the govt saying they'll hand out money to folks with pets. This is a person being able to deduct a certain amount of money spent on their pets from their overall income at tax time.

SO...in July, your dog is hit by a car and you incur a lot of vet bills, on top of all the regular expenses for your pet. The new tax law won't help a bit at that time. But the following spring, when you do your taxes....IF you're able to take itemized deductions, THEN you can add $3500 (at the most) to those deductions....which, depending on your situation, might lower your owed taxes by $50 or so. Not exactly a bail-out situation for pet owners.
True. But it doesn't really matter if people are actually getting additional money to help with pet bills or not: they see "tax benefit" or "tax break" and immediately think they'll be getting money.