Avoid these 7 'sins' this tax season

Looking for expenses to deduct from your taxes is a valued skill, but Nicole Lapin, former CNN/CNBC anchor and editor-in-chief of Recessionista.com, warns not to take it too far. Beware these "sins" this tax season, as they can get you into more trouble than they're worth:

1. If you're a disgruntled taxpayer, you can't claim an elected official because your taxes "pay his salary."

2. A woman cannot claim her unborn infant for the months she was pregnant last year, even if she gave up the newborn for adoption.

3. You cannot take dancing as a deduction for medical expenses - for example, if you don't feel like going to an actual doctor to cure arthritis, help your back, improve a nervous disorder or other health problems. Try doing this and you'll dance all the way to tax court.

4. Weddings - even if you invite business associates to your son or daughter's nuptials, don't try to deduct the cost of the wedding reception as a business expense.(Talk about unromantic.)

5. People often inflate the value of what they give to charities, like a CPA client wanting to deduct the market value of the blood he donated.

6. A trip to the Super Bowl - if someone decided to take clients and their spouses to the game, it does not count as a business deduction. And even if it was, it's an extravagant expense for a meeting and would have been disallowed anyway.

7. A taxpayer who commutes to work across state lines cannot deduct the tax on the meals he purchases on his lunch break.