http://www.usatoday.com/aponline/200...1412071400.htm
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - You can't deflate your taxes by inflating your chest, a Swedish stripper learned after a three-year legal battle to deduct the cost of her breast implants from her income taxes.
An appeals court in Stockholm sided with the latter and ruled the 25-year-old woman's 26,000 kronor (US $3,000) breast enhancement surgery could not be deducted from her 1998 income taxes.
The woman, whose name was not released, claimed the ''size and shape'' of her breasts were crucial to her income as a stripper. She listed the cost of the surgery as a business expense and sued the tax authorities when they rejected her deduction.
In its Jan. 9 ruling, the administrative court of appeal in the Swedish capital upheld the decision of a lower court, saying the surgery wasn't commercial, but private.
The woman's defense lawyer, Christer Transby, said Tuesday that the courts had treated his client unfairly because of her profession. He said other performers, including opera singers and dancers, were permitted deductions for different types of cosmetic surgery, although the benefits were more private than commercial.
''She derives absolutely no pleasure from (the surgery) privately,'' he said. ''It's of 100% commercial interest.''
Transby said his client had not yet decided whether to appeal.
Danish tax authorities turned down a similar appeal by a stripper there in 2001.