Like if I had to choose between Claude Code and income -12k USD, I would most certainly work the extra hours without it.
But it looks like in the US, you would need to be self employed or own a business where it is an expense. Which is a bummer.
only if it was necessary for the job, and the employer would've otherwise paid for it.
But if the employer originally paid for an LLM, but chose not to now, i am not sure that you personally paying for one is tax deductible (might have to argue it out with the tax office).
If PRs dropped by 95% then you'd have to work 20 times more hours to compensate. If you work 2 hours per week it's doable but if more than it's strenuous to impossible.
Not an equivalent example, at all. Firstly, because people _have_ to have a car to get to work in 99% of the world (unfortunately). Also, it is a durable good where if you no longer need it, you can sell it and recover some of the value.