Is it Tax Deductable? Menards Rebates used to buy supplies.

[Derek Rice]

We recently had several Menards home improvement stores open in my area and they are awesome! I tend to get business items there for about the same price as anywhere else, but if you time their ads, they send you rebates for the money that you spent! So my question is: Say I buy a roll of carpet for $1,000 from them. They are running a special where you get 10% back in the form of a rebate check that must be used at Menards. If I go buy a new saw, or a toilet for a house with that $100 rebate check, is it deductible as well as the $1,000 for the carpet? I am deducting $1,100, but I technically only spent $1,000 actual dollars.

[Derek Rice]

So it would be better to just buy items that are not tax deductible with the rebate checks? Would this example would be better? Spend $1,000 actual money on the carpet and deduct it. Receive the $100 rebate check and not claim it. Spend $100 actual money on the saw and deduct it. Use the $100 rebate check to buy a personal item from them that I cannot deduct, like a grill or dog food. 

I see where all the naysayers are coming from, and I'm not attempting to do any wrongdoing in the eyes of the government. It just seems to me that if Menards sees the rebate check as the same as cash that I can use to buy a personal item, then what makes the difference that I buy a business item with it instead?

I have about $500 in points from a credit card to spend on any item I want to from Amazon.com. I don't need any personal items so I was thinking of buying a really nice new ShopVac with it, but if I cannot deduct it then I'm better off to pay cash for it and save the points until I need something personal.