If you have a service animal, you can deduct as a medical expense, the cost of training, and you can deduct the cost of special equipment, such as a special harness, that is over and above the usual cost of keeping a pet. You can’t deduct food, shelter, vet bills, or any other normal expenses of having a pet.
A service animal is an animal that is trained to provide a service to a person with a disability. Emotional support animals, which provide comfort and emotional support through their natural untrained behaviors, are not service animals. The expenses for an emotional support animal are not deductible medical expenses, even if the animal is helpful to a medical condition. The law views it as a pet.
If you have a business and you have a guard dog, you may be able to deduct the expenses of training the guard dog, if a guard dog is an ordinary and necessary expense for the kind of business you run. Again, you can only deduct the extra costs that come from using the dog as a guard dog in business, and you can’t deduct the normal costs of a pet, including food, shelter, and vet bills.
I can’t think of any other situation where a pet would be deductible. A pet is not a dependent, and you cannot deduct the ordinary living expenses of life, including the expenses of having a pet. You can sometimes deduct medical expenses, and you can sometimes deduct the cost of doing business if you are running a business, but the ordinary expenses of life are mostly not deductible.
