There was a flyer on the bulletin board at work this morning about the HAPPY Act: Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years. This is a bill that seeks to allow pet owners a tax exemption for pet care expenses.
H.R. 3501 seeks to amend Internal Revenue Service codes to allow a deduction of up to $3500 per year for qualified pet care expenses. This doesn’t include livestock — the bill only covers domesticated household pets and does not include animals used for business or research purposes.
What inspired this? The bill mentions two key facts:
- A 2007-2008 survey of pet owners found that sixty-three percent of households in the United States include a pet.
- Lots of research points to the physical and emotional benefits of the human-pet relationship.
The qualified pet care expenses mentioned in the bill include “amounts paid in connection with providing care” for a pet — like veterinary care.
H.R. 3501 was sponsored by Michigan Representative Thaddeus McCotter. This isn’t the first piece of pet-related legislation McCotter has been involved with; earlier this year, McCotter and seven co-sponsors introduced a resolution to recognize National Dog Bite Prevention Week, May 17-23, 2009.
Opponents of the bill might say that pets are just possessions and owners don’t deserve a tax break. But for many people, pets are more than that. They are members of the family! If a tax exemption allows owners to take better care of their pets, I’m all for it. Owning a pet can cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars per year! (PetEducation.com suggests that owning a dog can cost anywhere between $287 and $2485 per year!)
My pets are definitely members of my family — but I also recognize that not everyone feels the same way I do. Still, a tax break may encourage people of all pet philosophies to take better care of their pets. I’ll definitely be following the progress of the HAPPY Act as it travels through Congress.