11 Simple Tax Deduction Tips

you can’t afford to forget!

• can claim square footage used for ONLY business purposes

• rent or mortgage, utilities, interest, repair, insurance

• IRS has introduced a simplified home office deduction, allowing filers to claim up to 300 square feet or $1,500

Tax Deduction Tip #1: Home Office

• donating clothes at the local charity shop or shelter? ask for a receipt

• maintain list of exactly what you’re donating

Tax Deduction Tip #2: Non-Cash Charitable

Donations

• you have to be self-employed or otherwise not covered by an employer to be able to claim 100% of your medical & dental insurance premiums.

• The IRS outlines the whole process on its website: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502.html

Tax Deduction Tip #3: Insurance Premiums

• Doctor visits, Dental visits

• Treatment for alcohol or drug addiction

• Insulin costs

• Smoking cessation program fees"!• Weight loss program fees

• Any other healthcare procedures that insurance did NOT reimburse

Tax Deduction Tip #4: Other Healthcare Costs

• You can write off business lunches, dinners, and parties

• Must have receipts for and be able to justify these indulgences

• Just be sensible!

Tax Deduction Tip #5: Meals & Entertainment

• Those free iPads and GoPro cameras do not just fall out of the sky.

• If you pay out of pocket for prizes for your customers, you can write them off on your taxes because such prizes are advertising expenditures.

• Not the same as Corporate Gifts, which have different laws"!• If you purchase a prize with your advertising budget, you

cannot deduct it twice along with your advertising total.

Tax Deduction Tip #6: Prizes given away in contests

Tax Deduction Tip #7: Website Design

• You can actually write off a variety of expenses centering on your website, its creation, and its promotion

• If you hire a graphic designer to create a logo, write it off

• If you hire a search engine marketer to juice your search ranking, write it off

• Even monthly or yearly hosting fees and various other tech expenses are tax deductible!

Tax Deduction Tip #8: Business Trips

• To receive a deduction for business travel it has to be for work-related reasons and far away from where you normally live and work."

!• IRS has many examples and exceptions, like, say you

live and work in one city for eight months of the year; a distant city, four. You can claim travel and housing expenses for the distant city.

Tax Deduction Tip #9: Software & Online Services

• Are you using online applications to run your business (like Wufoo Pro, Asana, or MailChimp)? You can write off all those subscription fees that accumulate throughout the year."!

• If you think about it, that makes putting your business up in the clouds effectively free, after you file your taxes."!

• As if we needed another reason to love the digital space!"

Tax Deduction Tip #10: Bad Debts

• “Write off the debt”"!• Have you invoiced people who haven’t paid? That’s all

tax deductible

Tax Deduction Tip #11: Business Association Fees

• File under “Other Expenses”

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