Work From Home
by ~ July 25th, 2008. Filed under: Work From Home.
Work from Home
So you have decided to work from home. An item you dont want to overlook is entertainment and meals. If you are with a friend and you pick up the tab this makes the whole bill tax deductible. The meals are 50% deductible. Also remember every person that comes into your home is a potential client or business associate. If you serve them drinks and dinner you can deduct 50% of the cost on your taxes. I dont know what the requirements would be for proof, but if you entertain business associates and clients in your home that means your are using more than just your office space for business. It is up to you and to your advantage to work and investigate every angle of saving money connected to your work from home business. Only you can make it a reality, and with your discipline and determination you can make it work.
Another thing to consider if you work at home and that is to put an activity log in your auto, truck and other vehicles that you use for travel. This will become a back up document of mileage and gas. This day and age it will add up like you wouldnt believe. If you are traveling you can deduct 50% of the cost of meals. In addition travel days can be counted as business days. You can deduct the whole day if you conduct business even if only one hour per day. Keeping good records is extremely important and that includes copies of receipts. I know this seems a little nit-picky but it will sure pay off. Think of it as plugging the hole in the dike.
If you work from home and have an office set up in a designated area you can deduct a percentage of cleaning costs, insurance, property taxes, utilities, mortgage interest. It is well worth your time to keep these records available, the IRS actually will help you in paying these bills by accepting these deductions, but you need proof.
Remember this, the tax code is set up to allow many deductions for business owners that are not available to employees Like I used to tell my kids, take advantage of your job and learn everything that you can about it; it will pay off in the long haul. In the final analysis only you will make your work from home business successful.
