Possible Deductions for Small Businesses

Running a small business can run you into the ground at tax time unless you really know what you’re doing. Hiring a tax professional is highly recommended. There are tens of thousands of pages of tax codes for small businesses, so don’t assume that you know everything just because you’ve filed for yourself before.

Hiring a professional who is very familiar with small business can be most beneficial. Think about how familiar they are and how dedicated they are to learning about all the tax breaks for small businesses if they themselves run a small business! This could affect your decision on who you hire. Hiring someone from a big company may seem like the safest route, but hiring an independent could be beneficial. Feel free to ask about their experience in filing for small businesses and ask if they themselves file this way. Get recommendations from other businesses similar to yours and you can get an idea of who will be best to work with you.

Now on to the deductions! There are a lot of legitimate deductions for small businesses. You will need to keep meticulous records to maximize the benefits of owning a small business. The best way is to consider where you work. If you’re like most business owners, you don’t just work in the office. You travel around, meet with clients, run errands, and sometimes work late nights at home.

Take advantage of all the places you work. You can currently deduct fifty five cents per mile that you travel for work. That’s about your cost of gas or more! You can deduct depreciation, taxes, and more on your vehicle if you run errands or ever use your car for work. Just keep a mile log in your vehicle to make getting this deduction easier.

Working at home can really maximize your benefits. If you have a home office, you can deduct the square footage of that office, equipment or computers and programs that you purchase, depreciation on your furniture and computer that you use, and more. All of this depends on the percentage of your home that you use for a specific percentage of time, so keep track of everything. Your power bill, taxes on your home, mortgage interest, phone lines, internet access, and more can be deducted if you properly keep up with these details.

Services that you use to make your business run smoothly can be deducted. If you use directory assistance when you’re on the road or mobile concierge services to make travelling easy, they can be deducted. Speak with your tax professional often to make sure that you are keeping track of everything. When tax time rolls around, you’ll be ready to get the maximum benefit of owning a small business!

About the Author: Joe Smith is a Marketing Associate of OnCall, a leading online source of mobile concierge services that goes above and beyond traditional directory assistance. Get international personalized assistance with phone direcory information, turn by turn directions, movie times, stock quotes, sports scores, and more at http://www.askoncall.com.