As a business owner, it can feel like you’re constantly spending money. When it’s time to go through your tax write-offs, you might be missing out on legitimate deductions for both personal and business expenses.
When you’re a certified public accountant such as myself, you constantly think, “am I able to write this off my taxes?” If you’re not a CPA, it might be an afterthought as you’re rifling through a year’s worth of bills and receipts. Unfortunately, there isn’t a master list of guaranteed items to deduct, however, if you look at the Internal Revenue Code in section 62 you can see that they vaguely state that a valid write-off is any expense incurred in the production of income. Each deduction has its own rules.
I try to teach my clients that they want to think as I do year-round. Write-offs are easier when you track them year-round, come January you might have forgotten about that service van repair you had last spring. Any good CPA wants to help you get as many legitimate write-offs as you can. This means, as long as you have a proper business purpose for an expense you should be able to write it off.
Possible deductions:
- Accounting fees
- Advertising
- Amortization
- Auto expenses
- Bad debts that you cannot collect
- Banking fees
- Board meetings
- Building repairs and maintenance
- Business association membership dues
- Business travel
- Cafeteria health-insurance plan (requires plan)
- Charitable deductions made for a business purpose
- Cleaning/janitorial services
- Collection Expenses
- Commissions to outside parties
- Computers and tech supplies
- Consulting fees
- Continuing education for yourself to maintain licensing and improve skills
- Conventions and trade shows
- Costs of goods sold
- Credit card convenience fees
- Depreciation
- Dining during business travel
- Discounts to customers
- Education and training for employees
- Employee wages
- Entertainment for customers and clients
- Equipment
- Equipment repairs
- Exhibits for publicity
- Family members’ wages
- Franchise fees
- Freight or shipping costs
- Furniture or fixtures
- Gifts for customers ($25 deduction limit for each)
- Group insurance (if qualifying)
- Health insurance
- Home office
- Interest
- Internet hosting and services
- Investment advice and fees
- Legal fees
- License fees
- Losses due to theft
- Management fees
- Materials
- Maintenance
- Medical expenses (with plan)
- Mortgage interest on business property
- Moving
- Newspapers and magazines
- Office supplies and expenses
- Outside services
- Payroll taxes for employees, including Social Security, Medicare taxes and unemployment taxes
- Parking and tolls
- Pension plans
- Postage
- Publicity
- Prizes for contests
- Real estate-related expenses
- Rebates on sales
- Rent
- Research and development
- Retirement plans
- Royalties
- Safe-deposit box
- Safe
- Software and online services
- Storage rental
- Subcontractors
- Taxes
- Telephone
- Utilities
- Website design
- Workers’ compensation insurance
I want to emphasize that this is a list of possible deductions for business owners. Some of these will not always apply; it’s up to you and your CPA to determine if you can utilize them. When in doubt about what constitutes an expense, make sure you call John J. Rooney CPA servicing the Orlando, Winter Garden, Ocoee, Apopka area.