We started a carpet cleaning business ran out of our home, what are some tax tips or a tax site to find break?
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at
9:27 am
I do not know much about taxes and I don’t know what to claim as expenses, can I claim gas,advertising,supplies,cell phones,business phone,office supplies,milage, running erands in my own car, business vans &up keep,as you see I am completely lost. I really don’t think H&R is going to cut it, should I get a CPA or acountant?
Filed under: Business Phone Systems
You need a CPA as opposed to an accountant and one who specializes in small home-operated businesses. You should have checked all this out BEFORE launching the business.
well, if you run it out of your house, you can claim parts of your housing expense as part of your business expenses… let’s say you use 25% of your house for your business, and you spend 100 dollars on utitlies, 25 bucks can be claimed as regular business expenses. It is the same for all the other expenses that you house incurs in the course of doing business.
one thing you have to make sure is that your business must be meant to make money (in tax terms) so it doesn’t fall under the hobby rules, but it only applies when you lose money.
by the way, you should get a CPA cause they can give you all the tax advice you need.
A good CPA usually pays for themself. Just keep track of all of your expenses. I have business credit cards and personal credit cards and I adhere to using them religiously for either business or personal. It’s best to err on the side of safety, especially in your first years of business. Don’t be too liberal when deciding that going to the grocery store in the company van is an expense, it truthfully isn’t. Don’t forget, the formulas that the irs uses will tend to throw up some red flags if you have too many write offs. Best off hiring a CPA and or an attorney to describe and explain to you what is and what isn’t considered a valid write off. Remember, the services of a CPA are, so use one.