Sponsors (5)
Introduced March 4, 2025 by Claudia Tenney · Last progress March 4, 2025
The bill gives targeted tax relief and clearer rules for pet and service-animal medical costs, but the benefit is limited in size, favors itemizers/higher-income taxpayers, and adds tax complexity and administrative burden.
Taxpayers who own service animals and other pet owners can deduct veterinary care and pet health insurance (up to $1,000 each per pet), reducing taxable income and lowering tax bills for those with pet medical expenses.
Clarifying definitions for 'veterinary care,' 'service animal,' and 'pet' reduces uncertainty about eligibility and helps taxpayers and the Treasury apply the deduction consistently.
Taxpayers with very high pet medical costs will still face significant out-of-pocket expenses because the deduction caps (e.g., $1,000 per category/per pet) do not cover larger bills.
The tax benefit mainly helps higher-income taxpayers who itemize deductions, so low-income taxpayers who take the standard deduction receive little or no advantage, worsening distributional fairness.
Expanding deductible medical expenses increases tax-code complexity and creates additional IRS administrative burden to verify claims, potentially raising compliance costs and audit workload.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows certain veterinary care and pet insurance to be treated as medical expenses: full treatment for service animals; up to $1,000 each for pets' vet care and pet insurance (COLA-adjusted).
Creates a new tax rule that lets taxpayers treat certain costs for animals as medical-care expenses when itemizing deductions. Costs for veterinary care or pet health insurance for a service animal of the taxpayer, spouse, or dependent are treated as medical expenses without a specified cap; for ordinary pets of the taxpayer, spouse, or dependent the bill allows deductions up to $1,000 for veterinary care and up to $1,000 for pet health insurance (each amount adjusted for inflation after 2025). The change applies to amounts paid or incurred after enactment and uses existing legal definitions by cross-reference.