Legal fees related to personal matters cannot be included in your itemized deductions. The fees you pay in connection with the determination, collection, or refund of any tax. Whether a lawyer's fees may be tax-deductible will generally depend on whether the fees are associated with a personal legal problem or a legal problem related to a business. This is especially true if the legal fees are related to a business matter, such as legal fees paid to a lawyer to help you file your company's Articles of Incorporation.
For example, while attorneys' fees paid in the event of legal separation or divorce will not be eligible for a tax reduction, attorneys' fees that must be paid to bring legal action to collect back child support or spousal support may be tax-deductible. That way, if a person wants to request a tax deduction for a lawyer's fees related to a personal legal matter, they'll have no problem separating which parts can be legally deducted and which parts of the bill can't. In general, attorneys' fees related to a personal legal matter, such as a divorce or legal separation, are generally not considered tax-deductible. As mentioned above, a good rule of thumb to follow is that if legal fees were generated when trying to generate or collect taxable income, those legal fees will most likely be eligible for a tax deduction.
