do you write off your house?

[birddseedd]

You use your house, pile supplies. store equipment, use electricity for fabing fixing and other things.

do you write off part of the expense of your house for these things?

technically even mowing your grass, doing landscaping you wouldnt normally do becomes an advertisement, which again is an expense.

[Duekster]

http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=378134


Yes

[birddseedd]

wonders how much i whoudl write off then

[weeze]

this has been covered before in another thread. you can write off a room or your house or a garage if you only use it for your business and nothing else. if you use it for any part of your normal personal life then you can't write it off or at least you aren't supposed to. like if you use your building outside completely to store only your lawn equipment and supplies and to work on them then you can write it off. if you ever use it for anything else then you aren't supposed to write it off. if you use it to change the oil in your work truck but also to change the oil in your wife's car or something then legally you can't write it off. if you have tools out there and you only use them on business things like working on your mowers then you can write off all those tools. if you use them to work on something in your house personally then you can't.

some have said you can figure out a percentage to write off but it gets complicated and it's hard to pinpoint. an example is an office room in your house that is only used for business and nothing else. the problem is who really has a room of their house that they only use for business? a few may but most people don't. also who uses their garage for only business and nothing else? probably noone. mostly who benefits from write offs like this are people who have a seperate building/location where their business is run from.

[Duekster]

Jason, maybe this is what you meant but lets be clear. It does not have to be a whole room or whole structure. It has to be the percentage used exclusively for work.

While not exactly apples to apples, lets say you use 50% of your internet service for work, then you take 50% of the cost. In the case of a house, room, shed, garage you can allocate a percentage.

The IRS is pretty clear on this... it is not that hard to follow.

[birddseedd]

i imagne it changes drasticly from state to state. her ein michigan things are done by percentages. my truck i have to say the whole miles drivin and then what percent is for business or work. i woudl imagine my house would be the same.

[Duekster]

Originally Posted by birddseedd

i imagne it changes drasticly from state to state. her ein michigan things are done by percentages. my truck i have to say the whole miles drivin and then what percent is for business or work. i woudl imagine my house would be the same.

I was talking IRS but I figure most States would likely follow the same math as the IRS.

There are exceptions to the milage tracking requirements. Vans with seperate storage and service trucks clearly identified as a work truck.

Qualified nonpersonal use vehicles include not only the trucks and vans listed in §1.274-5T(k)(2), but also trucks and vans described in §1.274-5T(k)(7) (relating to trucks and vans that have been specially modified, such as by installation of permanent shelving and painting the vehicle to display advertising or the company’s name, so that they are not likely to be used more than a de minimis amount for personal purposes). These specially manufactured or modified vehicles do not provide significant elements of personal benefit, and a taxpayer is unlikely to purchase these vehicles unless motivated by a valid business purpose that could not be met with a less-expensive vehicle. We welcome comments on other options that provide administrable objective standards and are consistent with the statutory purpose.

http://www.irs.gov/irb/2003-37_IRB/ar10.html

I know I saw this in the actual code somewhere else too but my google fu is weak today

[birddseedd]

Originally Posted by Duekster

I was talking IRS but I figure most States would likely follow the same math as the IRS.

There are exceptions to the milage tracking requirements. Vans with seperate storage and service trucks clearly identified as a work truck.

Qualified nonpersonal use vehicles include not only the trucks and vans listed in §1.274-5T(k)(2), but also trucks and vans described in §1.274-5T(k)(7) (relating to trucks and vans that have been specially modified, such as by installation of permanent shelving and painting the vehicle to display advertising or the company’s name, so that they are not likely to be used more than a de minimis amount for personal purposes). These specially manufactured or modified vehicles do not provide significant elements of personal benefit, and a taxpayer is unlikely to purchase these vehicles unless motivated by a valid business purpose that could not be met with a less-expensive vehicle. We welcome comments on other options that provide administrable objective standards and are consistent with the statutory purpose.

http://www.irs.gov/irb/2003-37_IRB/ar10.html

I know I saw this in the actual code somewhere else too but my google fu is weak today

so what exactly does this mean? i can write off all of the miles i drive? since the truck was bought and modified for the purpose of the business. even if i end up having to drive it sometimes.

[Darryl G]

I don't write off anything for use of my house for the business.

I do however write off 100% of the actual cost of owning and maintaining my work truck, which is well over what it would be if i took the standard mileage deduction. But being that it's a heavy duty work truck, I only use it for business. It would be stupid to drive a truck that gets 8 -10 miles/gallon when I have other vehicles to drive for personal use. Yeah I might stop at the convenience store for some personal items while out on business, but it's on the way...I don't think I need to subract the 100 feet into the parking lot from my mileage, lol.

[Duekster]

Originally Posted by birddseedd

so what exactly does this mean? i can write off all of the miles i drive? since the truck was bought and modified for the purpose of the business. even if i end up having to drive it sometimes.

Pretty much.. I do not think magnetic signs qualify however. I rarely use my truck for anything but work related purposes.
I may stop at the store on the way home after checking on a few lawns.


You very well should have a personal car too for personal use. If I ever use it for work then I do the miles on it. It clearly gets better milage than my truck and I do use my personal account to fill it up too.