Look over all of the responses well, two types of people replied to this thread, some were self employed and some were employed by someone and they have different tax implications. Self employed people can deduct tool expenses like was said as a business expense. As these people said this method works great but it reduces their gross income.
I assume you are an employee of someone else. In that case you can deduct them as an itemized deduction similar to home mortgage interest, but only if you itemize deductions and do not take the standard deduction as said. Unfortunately, since the 1980s the amount that you can deduct has been limited. An amount equal to 2% of your income (plus your spouse's income if filing jointly) is not deductible. So say you make $50K and you spend $3000 on tools. You cannot deduct the first 2% or $1000, so your deduction is limited to $2000. So tax planning is important, if you made some big purchases this year you can maximize your deduction if you have something else to buy, to do it before the end of the year rather than waiting until the first of the year. On the other hand if you were thinking of buying a few things now, then holding off until next year to make a few big purchases, you might be better of waiting until the first of the year to make those few purchases you were currently planning.
