Transgender Woman, IRS Fight over Tax Deduction

[ikojo]

The IRS, hardly medical doctors, are saying that this woman's sex reassignment surgery is cosmetic and not medical in nature.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15327911

Transgender Woman, IRS Fight over Tax Deduction

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Rhiannon O'Donnabhain says she spent more than $25,000 on sex-reassignment surgery in 2001, and claimed a $5,000 deduction she was entitled to. But the IRS denied the deduction, saying the surgery was essentially cosmetic and therefore not allowed under tax law. The case is now before a federal judge in Boston.

snip

While O'Donnabhain believes her sex-change operation literally saved her life, the IRS argues that it falls into the category of "cosmetic surgery" under its tax code and is not allowed as a deduction. Agency officials declined to be interviewed for this story, but in court they argued that sex-reassignment surgery deals with the body's appearance more than function, and that GID is not a "disease" or "illness" as defined by tax laws.

"The IRS is arguing that gender-reassignment surgery is really no different, conceptually, than a tummy tuck or a Botox injection," said Theodore Seto, a professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. "The argument is: 'Look, she is changing her appearance so as to look better, to be happier with herself. It doesn't treat any underlying problem.'"