Have you heard the one about the doggie day care deduction? The male model? The pimped-out Amish buggy?

That's right -- Bankrate's back with another nine of the craziest tax write-offs you've ever heard of, in the hope it will make paying your 2006 federal income tax a little bit easier.

For our last installment of the nine weirdest write-offs, we combed the country collecting stories from certified public accountants about the craziest tax deductions they'd ever seen. The search turned up plenty of ingenious ways in which taxpayers have tried to justify deducting everything from ostrich breeding to sperm donations to dog food.

Dogs once again get their due in this year's collection. While our pets may seem like part of the family, as we will see, attempts to treat them as actual dependents -- or more outrageously, subcontractors -- simply won't fly with the Internal Revenue Service.

It's never a good idea to tempt fate by trying to slide one by Uncle Sam. Serious consequences may result from underreporting income, filing a false or erroneous

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Oil prices rose Thursday after hitting eight-week lows in the previous session on news of increased U.S. stockpiles.
The U.S. Energy Department reported that crude inventories rose 1.9 million barrels to 337.1 million barrels last week, sending light sweet crude down 31 cents to $69.26 a barrel.

The weekly report also said gasoline supplies fell by 5.7 million barrels, nearly 3 percent, to 196.2 million barrels. U.S. refineries lowered production last week by 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous week, running at 91.6 percent of total capacity.

But easing concerns about oil-related damage from Hurricane Dean contributed to a ceiling Thursday on prices.

By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for October delivery was up by 42 cents, selling for $69.68 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. October Brent crude rose 25 cents to $68.95 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Traders were also monitoring Hurricane Dean, which hit the Mexican mainland for a second time Wednesday after striking oil platforms in the Gulf and forcing thousands to flee.

Dean made landfall Wednesday near the port of Tecolutla in Veracruz state on the central Gulf coast as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds