US Tax Court

It’s more than just a Snickers bar!

This is the kickoff blog for my new website and what better way to start it than with something fun and informing.

The SNICKERS® Write-Off has been getting a lot of viewing on YouTube lately, because of something apparently Mars put out.

Hopefully somewhat tongue-in-cheek, they state that “In 2005, an Arizona woman tried to write off a Snickers bar and her tax return was denied. This short documentary exposes that injustice to the world.”

In CVANCARA v. COMMISSIONER, T.C. Memo. 2013-20, all the memorandum opinion says regarding this is that “We find that the Mars Snickers bar is personal.”  This short sentence wound up to be a 3 minute and 17 second YouTube video.

However, there are other personal items that the Court found , which are listed separately in the notes to the table, and which altogether total $113.53, including the two dollar Snickers bar.

  • children’s medicine
  • drinks
  • coffee and water
  • candy, drinks, and medicine
  • coffee
  • coffee
  • coffee
  • coffee
  • infant formula and cookies
  • coffee and the coffee cake
  • chocolate
  • backpack and the soda
  • infant bottle
  • mocha drink
  • shampoo
  • gum and chocolate
  • the Sunday paper
  • coffee
  • medicine

In that same table, the Court allowed $1,308.79 as business expenses. Apparently, her tax return was not denied. Whether this constitutes injustice to the world depends, I guess, on how one defines injustice, and how much you like chocolate!

Mars does their part, by the way, in tackling social injustice.