Surprise – Almost Everything! What I Learned that Saved Me Thousands
I started my own business several months ago and let me tell you, the expenses really started to add up fast. On top of obvious business expenses, I was working out of my home, using my personal cell phone to do all my business calls and networking my ass off. I’m not an accountant or tax lawyer — you should definitely talk to one — but here are a few cool tips I learned about expenses that can actually count as business expenses (and therefore tax write-offs):
- Working at all from home? Part of your rent or mortgage expense can count as a home office expense.
- Have coffee, lunch or drinks with someone to talk about a business opportunity? That counts!
- Driving somewhere to do work or meet someone to talk about work? Keep track of that mileage because it counts!
- Maybe more obvious stuff like conferences, office supplies, subscriptions (hello WSJ), travel! Deduct that!
- And duh, office space, parking, hardware, software…
- PHONE BILL.
- If it is part of and needed to operate your business (a legit business expense), it should be treated as such.
- One thing is you definitely need to form a business entity – LLC, C-Corp, S-Corp, etc. If you’ve set that up (also, congrats on that too) and depending on how you’ve set that up, legit biz expenses are handled on your taxes.
~ Contributing WMN Member
Disclaimer: The above article was not written by a lawyer or accountant and not intended to be used as legal or tax advice. Need some help? See how WMN Legal can connect you with the right people.
Posted In: Finance Tips