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Tax season here. 7 changes for 2015 (and 9 of the weirdest deductions)

To help you fill out your 2014 returns and plan for 2015, here are few tax changes, big and small, for 2015 – and nine of the most peculiar deductions.

11. Deduction: deer donation

Keith Srakocic/AP/File
A pair of deer move along the edge of the woods during the first day of Pennsylvania's white-tailed deer hunting season.

South Carolina may be the only place where “meat processing plants” and “charity donations” occupy the same tax form. Any meat packer, butcher, or processing plant in the state can get a $50 rebate by donating a processed deer carcass to a charity, which will use it to feed the hungry.

None of the meat may have been used previously for commercial purposes, and meat providers must “skin, cut, bone, grind, package, or perform any butchering tasks necessary to prepare the meat for distribution and consumption” before it can be donated. This deduction is only available to professional meat processors. 

So if you’re in the venison business, want to do a good deed, and get a break on your taxes, it looks like South Carolina is your state.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

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