The Green Industry's Resource Center

shoctor · #1 10-26-2008, 08:20 PM

What is everyone else writing off for their business aside from fuel, mileage, equipment, equipment maintenance and advertising? Just shecking to make sure the accountant is not missing anything.

IN2MOWN · #2 10-26-2008, 08:28 PM

Anything that has to do with your business and I mean ANYTHING.

Do you run it out of your house? Figure out how much space you use for your business and write that off. Part of your utilities also.

Spend money on food or drinks?

Clothing or uniforms?

Postage?

The list is miles long.

landscaper22 · #3 10-26-2008, 08:47 PM

Yeah, if you operate out of your home you can write off a portion of your electric, phone bill, etc. And like in2mown said, anything you purchase that is used for business, write it off. A CPA would be able to help more than we can though. They can give you a lot of advice.

Superior L & L · #4 10-26-2008, 09:00 PM

You do have to be careful about your house . You can write off a percentage of your payment based on percentage of square footage used. But if/when you sell your house and you make money the gains also have to be divided by that percentage and reported by your company

old oak lawn · #5 10-26-2008, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superior L & L

You do have to be careful about your house . You can write off a percentage of your payment based on percentage of square footage used. But if/when you sell your house and you make money the gains also have to be divided by that percentage and reported by your company

this is what my CPA told me also. he said it would not be worth it for me to do so. //For me.// Keep track of everything you spend on your business, all those little thing add up.

shoctor · #6 10-27-2008, 01:07 PM

does anyone have a spreadsheet from their CPA etc etc that they currently use for tax deductions that has the specific itemizations for tax deductions? I would be interested in seeing this. If not maybe as a collective on the board if everyone sent me their list of deductions aside from the obvious deductions and put a list together for anyone that would like a copy.

LawnTamer · #7 10-27-2008, 01:17 PM

I will only give 2 pieces of advice.

1. Get and use a GOOD accountant, at least for a year or two, that will allow you to see how he/she plugs numbers in, and uses tax shelters. Everyone has lots of advice, about half of it is right, a good accountant is a must, and most of them are not very good.

2. Write off whatever you think reasonable, but never, and I mean never hide income, never have clients write checks straight to your personal account, if you accept cash, declare it etc. If you are audited and the IRS/State tax dept disagrees with a write off, they will make you pay the difference, in many cases, they won't even hit you with any penalties, or will wave the penalties. If they find that you have hid, or tried to hide income, you get to go to prison, where you can be some 300lb felon's "girlfriend".

I have had 4 different accountants and every one of them gave me that same advice.

Exact Rototilling · #8 10-28-2008, 10:58 PM

Lawn Tamer has great advice and I need to get an accountant myself.

Becarefull about the IRS definition re: home office deduction. My Lawn biz really doesn't qualify for it but my other home business clearly does. This is a favorite audit area.

I just can't claim 2 home offices

brandtb1 · #9 10-29-2008, 09:58 AM

I write off anything that is a business expense. I do not write off anything on my house, because I heard that is a trigger for an audit. The little stuff that you purchase adds up. I have a company debit card and use that for business purchases only. I also save the receipts in a file. If you use it in the business, you should be able to write it off.

ECS · #10 10-29-2008, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shoctor

does anyone have a spreadsheet from their CPA etc etc that they currently use for tax deductions that has the specific itemizations for tax deductions? I would be interested in seeing this. If not maybe as a collective on the board if everyone sent me their list of deductions aside from the obvious deductions and put a list together for anyone that would like a copy.

There are 2 excel sheets that I use. The $ amount for the fuel allowance would need to be changed on all sheets to reflect the currant allowance.

One sheet is for vehicle use, both for work and personal use and gets transposed onto the expense report for me. Anything I am in question about, I type in on the bottom of the montly expense sheet and on the bottom of the total sheet and let my accountant decide to use it or not. I type in the date, the category it was placed in and the dollar amount.

Feel free to use them if you want. My accountant loves these sheets. I can not upload the excel sheets on here, but I can email them to you if you want.