• A tax deduction is the exemption of a certain amount of your income from being subject to the income tax. These deductions are permitted by the IRS under certain limits. In general, deductions derive from specific expenses undertaken involuntarily relative to one's work or family situation. They are the government's way of cushioning the financial blow of, for example, outfitting a room in a house for business purposes.
  
  

Burials

• One cannot deduct funeral and burial expenses. This happens on occasion, according to the IRS, because some people think that funerals are in some sense part of the normal medical deductions that are commonly permitted.
  
  

Health Clubs or Gyms

• While there are many things that the health and medical deductions permit, joining a health club is not one of them. This is the case even if the joining of a gym is done solely for health, rather than recreational reasons. If you have joined a health club to assist in a diet, other aspects of your dieting are deductible, such as going to specific meetings or seminars, but joining a gym never is.
  
  

Interest

• The only interest deductions for individuals normally are for the home. You can write off the interest from your mortgage loan. However, you cannot deduct interest from your personal car, that is, a car only for personal use, credit cards or interest from tax-exempt loans and investments, such as in churches or philanthropic organizations.
  
  

Home Businesses

• The IRS is very clear that in order to write off part of the home used strictly for business, it can never be a dual-use room. If there is a home office that is used for personal bookkeeping or other things, none of the investments made in that home office are deductible. In addition, exterior improvements such as painting or lawn care to the home used as a business cannot be deducted on one's taxes.
  
  

Commuting

• Commuting costs are rarely deductible. However, if you work from home and, for some reason, are called away to the home office, that commute is deductible. In addition if you are sent to a temporary work site, that is deductible. But normal, day-to-day commuting and transportation costs are not deductible items.
  
  

Travel

• Business travel is never deductible if the firm you work for has a functioning reimbursement plan that is part of the firm's normal accounting expenses. It must be an "institution" in the firm, so to speak, rather than an ad hoc reimbursement scheme.