Ok, I'll bite. No, you cannot deduct parking/non-reimbursed employee expenses from your taxes.

Everyone files taxes and the manner in which they do so is never the same as the next person. So here's a few tips on how it can be done.

1. Have a creative accountant in the family, or hire one. Not a shady or illegal one, a creative one who can give you tips on how to legally make deductions.

2. Make the mistake of owning property in CA and renting it. Any trip to "check" on your investment can be a deduction. How you "check" on it is up to you, that creative accountant can show you some ways.

3. Start a business, non-profit, any thing that may require you to conduct "business" in CA. Hell, start an e-bay business, buy shot glasses, golf balls, napkins, anything, in bulk from CA and sell one at a time. Note: you'll have to actually show a profit on that one as you can only deduct expenses from profit, not loss. Again, consult your creative accountant on that one. Also be careful on what you consider to be "business" because remember, you can't use United non-rev benefits for the purposes of making a "business" trip.

4. Is this all really worth it? When I parked in Seattle and was reimbursed $35 each month, no. Recovering $480 dollars was not worth the effort. Now that I have to pay in full and my parking costs will be in the neighborhood of $1200-$1700, yeah, it's worth it to get legally creative and find a way to write it off. So I took the company issued parking pass in SFO, put a vehicle there and looked for a way to financially not be punished for it.

Everyone has a different situation. Maybe it's worth it to you, maybe it isn't.