Self Employed-s - What do you write off?

[Anonymous]

I'm new to the world of the "self employed". No employees besides myself.

What I would like to know is what others write off?

Which write-offs are worth the effort of listing them on your returns, and which are a waste of time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm new to the world of the "self employed". No employees besides myself.

What I would like to know is what others write off?

Which write-offs are worth the effort of listing them on your returns, and which are a waste of time?

Almost nothing that isn't obviously a business expense (e.g., buying a printer for the office that stays at my non-home office). While many people get super creative, you are begging for an audit, just begging for one, when you start to get cute with automobiles, shared spaces in your home that you swear are for "the business", and trips. Some people have aggressive accountants who play a very disciplined, risk-adjusted game, but I've had two acquaintances who really went too far and the IRS ate their lunch.

[Anonymous]

I expense my laptop, cell phone and monthly charges (it's my primary business line), iPad, portion of home internet service, inkjet cartridges, paper, office supplies, mileage for travel to the airport, train station or client meetings downtown, accounting fees, bookkeeping fees, legal fees, business development lunches, bus dev travel, etc. Basically all directly connected to the business. Have not taken the home office deduction but there is a change in the regs that vastly simplifies it for 2013 so will probably do it this year.

As a self employed person I can also deduct our health insurance premiums (which are not company provided).

[Anonymous]

Went out to dinner with a friend last week, and he kept the receipt so he could write off the meal. He said it was a "business dinner" wink wink. I wonder if he will ever get caught for this shit.

[Anonymous]

A ton of people do that. My guess is that the IRS is not going to investigate him because of dinner write-offs. Now if he tried to write off a fake home office and trips to Brazil - then maybe.

[Anonymous]

I had a tax accountant file for us- he was extremely generous with any work related item I bought- such as shredder, printer etc.- didn't hesitate. The deduction is minimal- plus in my case, I had very little expenses (some non office oriented ones were paid by the firm I worked for as a consultant).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a tax accountant file for us- he was extremely generous with any work related item I bought- such as shredder, printer etc.- didn't hesitate. The deduction is minimal- plus in my case, I had very little expenses (some non office oriented ones were paid by the firm I worked for as a consultant).

Same here

[Anonymous]

mileage, health care insurance, business insurances, conference attendance, marketing, phone, accounting

[Anonymous]

I push it. Anything with a possible thread of connection to the business gets deducted. The obvious things, and not so obvious things. Never been audited in 30 years. If I am, I pay the fine and extra taxes. Big wow.

[Anonymous]

I'm like 12:44 I guess - I even write off my gym membership because I've met people I do business with there and we work out together while talking shop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I push it. Anything with a possible thread of connection to the business gets deducted. The obvious things, and not so obvious things. Never been audited in 30 years. If I am, I pay the fine and extra taxes. Big wow.

Examples please?

[Anonymous]

I write off my home office space, which I took the time to accurately calculate.

I write off coffees, etc. for business meetings. Parking. If I am out all day in meetings and need to grab lunch on the fly, I use my business account for that.

I actually do not write off mileage on my car because then the municipality I live in would charge me for business use of a car (City of Alexandria).

Then of course all the extras, like supplies, computers, etc.

[Anonymous]

Nothing that wouldn't stand up to an audit, i.e. not 100% for the business.

[Anonymous]

I am another one that pushes it- can you really write off a gym membership though? This would not have occurred to me and may be the push I need to sign up for a more expensive gym! I did look into writing off country club memberships and I know you can't.

My most creative was a $1000 Louis Vuitton "laptop bag". I do use it to hold my laptop so my accountant was fine with it.

[Anonymous]

We use Turbo tax each year and I am not the tax person in my household, but it's my understanding that if you work IN your home as a self-employed person, much of these deductions are divided up by business and home use, so they're often small percentages of the actual cost that are deductible. For example, the space my office is in is an incredibly minor deduction - but I take it. The printer is used for work AND personal, so the deduction is very minor, but I take it.

I deduct the obvious things like professional expenses, books and supplies, coffees at a client meeting, and hard drives for work data storage. The more fine-line/questionable things are coffee on the way to a meeting, a particular item of clothing I once had to purchase to attend a client's event (which I only went to to network), drinks that I had out where I ended up meeting someone with whom I discussed work and they subsequently became a client, gifts for client/their family, etc...

The insurance premium thing is in question because we've paid through an employer and on our own this year (changed halfway through) so I need to look into that. The last year we paid through our own plan we did deduct it, I believe. It was a lot.

I do deduct mileage at the federal reimbursement rate which is now 50-some cents per mile. I drive a lot, though.

I only work part time from home and make less than $40K per year, so my expenses are not terribly grand or complicated.