Please vote and pass this on...


On 7/17/07, lillisa410 < papichulo410@gmail.com> wrote:

This was on Boston.com and I thought this was an interesting case.

IRS denies sex-change writeoff

By Associated Press | July 17, 2007

After a tormented existence as a father, a husband, a Coast Guardsman,
and a construction worker, a 57-year-old suburban Boston man underwent
a sex-change operation. And then she wrote off the $25,000 in medical
expenses on her taxes.

But the IRS disallowed the deduction, ruling the procedure was
cosmetic, not a medical necessity, in a potentially precedent-setting
dispute now before the US Tax Court.

Rhiannon O'Donnabhain is suing the IRS in a case that advocates for
the transgendered are hoping will force the tax agency to treat
sex-change operations the same as appendectomies, heart bypasses, and
other deductible medical procedures. The case is set to go to trial
July 24.

An estimated 1,600 to 2,000 people a year undergo sex-change surgery
in the United States, according to the Gay and Lesbian Medical
Association.

O'Donnabhain, now 63, served in the Coast Guard, got married, helped
to raise three children, and worked as a supervisor at various
engineering and construction jobs, including the Big Dig highway
project. O'Donnabhain said she could have paid back the approximately
$5,000 she received in her tax refund, but decided to challenge the
IRS because she believes the ruling against her was rooted in politics
and prejudice.

"This goes way beyond money," O'Donnabhain said in an interview with
the Associated Press. "If I were to give the money back, it would be
saying it's OK for you to do this to me. It is not OK for them to do
this to me or anyone like me."

The federal Tax Court has never issued an opinion in a similar case,
said Jennifer Levi, a lawyer with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders,
the Boston-based legal organization representing O'Donnabhain.

But the IRS has ruled against allowing the deduction in at least one
other case. In a 2005 case, the IRS ruled the costs of a woman's
gender reassignment surgery and related treatments were not deductible
as medical expenses. The IRS cited the section of the tax code that
says cosmetic surgery or similar procedures are deductible only when
they are needed to improve a congenital abnormality, an accident or
trauma, or a disfiguring disease.

Diego M. Sanchez, APR
Director of Public Relations & External Affairs
AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc.
294 Washington St., Boston, MA 02108
direct: 617.450.1524; mobile: 617.835.1455
www.aac.org