Can an employee claim a tax deduction for business expenses?

Plaintiffs correctly note that this issue - whether or not an employee claimed a tax deduction for business expenses - appears in every wage case, but has never prevented certification. In any event, if an employee did take a tax deduction, that amount would merely be considered income. See Palmer v. Stassinos, 233 F.R.D. 546, 550 (N.D. Cal. 2006) (though different consumers may recover different amounts, "[t]he potential difference in recovery does not in itself create a conflict between [the named representative] and the unnamed class members").