You can deduct a plethora of investment expenses on your Schedule A subject to the 2 percent adjusted gross income floor, including fees paid to financial advisors and even the subscription cost of this newsletter. Based on that, it would seem logical that you could essentially deduct the expense ratios of your fund holdings.

Alas, that’s not the case. Because fees and expenses for the management of the fund are paid at the operational level and are directly deducted from assets, they don’t show up as income for you. Basically, the fund itself can deduct the fees, but individual investors can’t. The exception to that rule is if you hold shares in non-publicly traded funds, i.e. hedge funds, in which case you can itemize the fees and expenses you pay.

As a rule of thumb, if there’s no entry in Box 5 of your 1099-DIV, you can’t itemize fees and expenses.

Also, don’t try to itemize load charges and commissions incurred buying or selling mutual fund shares. Rather, when calculating your investment gains or losses, commission fees are added to your cost basis, to which you can also add load charges as long as you held the shares for longer than 90 days.

I purchased shares of Cedar Fair LP (NYSE: FUN) after it appeared in the December 2006 issue. I’m still holding them, but I wonder if I should sell. — G. Frazier, via e-mail

Surprisingly enough, attendance and earnings at the partnership’s string of amusement parks across the US and Canada has held up well despite the recession.

In 2008, attendance rose 3 percent for the year and profits came in at $5.7 million. The thinking is that rather than traveling long distances for vacations, families are opting for shorter jaunts to the local amusement parks.

Cedar Fair has also benefited from the fact that it has effectively controlled costs, so it’s been able to hold down admissions and food prices. It also ran several successful marketing campaigns over the course of the year, helping to drive attendance.

Despite those positive developments, amusement parks are risky business these days, particularly as there are few signs the economy will recover anytime soon. The malaise continues to run longer and deeper, and according to government reports another 651,000 workers lost their jobs in February and mortgage delinquencies are continuing to climb. Consumers will therefore continue to tighten their belts.

The company has assured investors that slashing distributions will be the last option considered, but its current yield of more than 31 percent seems unsustainable in the extreme. Insider selling has also been heavy–director Darrel Anderson unloaded more than 20,000 units in February, and CEO Dick Kinzel sold 167,000 units in early March. Kinzel says that he sold the units to meet a margin call.

We wouldn’t bet on Cedar Fair maintaining its current distribution level, and, reasoned or not, the insider activity is unnerving. The best course would probably be to sell the units.

What’s going on with Harris Corp (NYSE: HRS)? The stock has dropped considerably since it was first recommended in the February issue. The company continues to grow profits; what gives? — Donald Tingum, via e-mail

Don Wordell, portfolio manager of RidgeWorth Mid-Cap Value Equity (SMVTX), mentioned Harris Corp as one stock to buy now in the February “Across the Street.” Although the stock has been caught up in the broader market selloff, Wall Street agrees with Don’s assessment; 12 of the fifteen analysts who cover the stock continue to rate it a buy, and three reaffirmed their recommendation at the beginning of March.

With a reputation for quality and innovation, Harris has thrived providing communications solutions and services to government and commercial clients. The former group accounts for a sizeable chunk of overall revenues, with the US government as the primary customer. At the same time, because no single government contract exceeds more than 5 percent of overall sales, there’s a degree of diversity.

The company has significant growth opportunities in international markets for its surveillance and secured communications systems as well; last quarter overseas sales grew steadily to 40 percent of revenue growth.

And analysts are particularly enthused by the growth prospects for its Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack radio, which was the first such model to be certified for the US military’s Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), a broad-based initiative to standardize and upgrade communications without immediately jettisoning legacy systems.

Not only should the company see an uptick in orders with the increase in troop deployments to Afghanistan, but because less than 100,000 radios currently in use are JTRS compliant there’s ample profits to be made in replacing the remaining 900,000 units.

At the same time, the company faces some headwinds. For one, sales in its commercial broadcast segment are likely to slow as media companies trim or postpone capital expenditures. And one dissenting analyst, Joseph Nadol from JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) recently downgraded Harris Corp to “underweight” from “neutral” citing the potential for weak sales for the company’s radio frequency products. This concern stems from delays in the procurement process that have pushed back orders for its Falcon III to at least the latter half of 2009.

Given the Harris Corp’s strong portfolio of products and rising demand both domestically and internationally for secured communications systems, the company’s long-term growth prospects appear intact.