Archive for Deductions
Updated tax deduction worksheets now available
Posted by: | CommentsWe’ve updated our tax deduction worksheets for the 2009 tax year. You can download these worksheets and use to help with your tax records. The worksheets are geared directly to a number of professions and business types. Click any one of the following links to download your own copy.
Airline Personnel- Auto Salespersons
- Auto, Travel & Entertainment Expenses
- Business Professionals
- Clergy
- Construction Workers
- Day Care Providers
- Direct Sellers
- Entertainers & Actors
- Firefighters
- Hairstylist & Manicurist
- Law Enforcement
- Long-Haul Truck Drivers
- Medical Professionals
- Real Estate Salespersons & Brokers
- Teachers & Educators
These worksheets are not all encompassing but represent the more common deductible expenses associated with the profession.
Print This Post
Want your home buyer tax credit? I hope you are patient.
Posted by: | CommentsFor all of you that are eligible for the home buyer tax credit this filing season I have some news from the IRS administrative front. Don’t expect your tax refunds to come quickly. Oh, and you won’t be able to file your federal income tax return electronically either. And make sure you have all your closing paperwork at your fingertips.
The Internal Revenue Service today (Jan 15, 2010) released the new form that eligible
home buyers need to claim the first-time homebuyer credit this tax season and announced processing of those tax returns will begin in mid-February. The IRS also announced new documentation requirements to deter fraud related to the first-time home buyer credit.
The new form and instructions follow major changes in November to the home buyer credit by the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009. The new law extended the credit to a broader range of home purchasers and added new documentation requirements to deter fraud and ensure taxpayers properly claim the credit. Read as… more paper work and yet again more paper work. Read More→
Schedule A for itemized deductions, now Schedule L too
Posted by: | Comments
Not since the direct deduction for some charitable contributions was removed has the standard deduction changed from its basic amount plus its additional amounts for the aged or blind.
In recent years, however, we’ve had three law changes that add to the standard deduction.
- The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 added sales taxes paid on the purchase of a new car to the standard deduction.
- The Housing Act of 2008 added the property tax deduction for nonitemizers to the standard deduction.
- The Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 added a standard deduction for net disaster losses.
Of course, all these changes mean more forms to fill out and to review. Read More→
How to get your home office deduction
Posted by: | CommentsHave you wondered whether or not you’re entitled to a home office deduction? With tax time here again maybe you should take another look.
A few years back, more liberal rules came into play for home office deductions, allowing more people to qualify for the write-off. Specifically, the old, hard-to-meet “principal place of business” bar was lowered to a much more taxpayer-friendly level.
If you use your home office space regularly and exclusively for your sole proprietorship, LLC or partnership business, there are several ways to qualify for the deduction: Read More→
You’re being audited and you’re missing records, now what?
Posted by: | Comments
So you’re facing an audit and your records, or a portion of them, have gone missing. Or, you’re just a normal entrepreneur chasing from one project to another and your record keeping habits were just, well, not habits at all. You may not be able to produce receipts, bills or other written documentation for all the items on your tax return. That’s when you must turn to reconstructing your records or gathering together the best proof you have for the IRS.
The law does not require perfect record keeping habits—it’s just simpler that way. It’s perfectly legal to reconstruct your records in any way to provide adequate evidence that what you claimed on your return was, in fact, accurate. Read More→
New deduction for sales taxes on a new car purchase
Posted by: | Comments
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides that for vehicles purchased on or after February 17, 2009 and before January 1, 2010 you can deduct, as an itemized deduction or as an addition to the standard deduction, sales taxes on the purchase of a qualifying new vehicle — on the first $49,500 of the purchase price. Qualifying vehicles include the following. Read More→
