Tax Write Off for Clothing

Many industries require their employees to wear certain work clothes or uniforms. As long as you can't wear these clothes every day as street wear, and donning the uniforms is mandatory at your place of employment, you'll likely be able to deduct the cost of these work clothes on your tax return.

In order to qualify for deduction, the IRS requires that all items worn are not suitable to replace your general wardrobe, and are a condition of your employment. For example, firefighters, nurses, police officers, transportation authority workers, and pilots are just a few of the professions where an employee would qualify for uniform deduction.

Certain safety clothing, such as hard hats, glasses, steel toed boots, and work gloves that you are required to wear for your job may also be deductible. This means carpenters, masons, chemists, electricians, commercial fisherman, machinists, miners, and truck drivers can deduct their safety expenses.