Are legal fees for reviewing severance agreements tax deductible?

[junglejordan]

In 2015, an attorney reviewed a severance agreement for me prior to my separation from my employer.  I would like to know whether or not his fees can be listed as a deduction on my 2015 income taxes.

[DanielDB · Accepted solution]

They probably fall under the unreimbursed employee expenses or other expenses on schedule A.  You can find more information on this in Publication 529

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p529/ar02.html

However, those expenses are only deductible if you itemize your deductions and then you can only deduct those expenses that over over 2% of your adjusted gross income (TurboTax does that calculation for you).

Hope that helps