I am helping my uncle prepare his taxes. He has a 16 year old boy that lives with gramma and dad. During the school year he went home to grammas after school, and then to dads for the late afternoon and night, and during the summer evenly spent time with both, pretty much an even 6 months with each. Gramma wants to claim him because she runs a business, and takes him to a large amounts of doctors appointments and gets him on tons of medications with no medical insurance, and if she claims him she gets more deductions. (i personally think if she wants it all for him, she should have to take the fall for the money she decides to spend on it but oh well) Whereas now he mainly lives with his dad, but during 2008, he was 6months with dad 6 months with gramma. The rules say that you can claim a child that has lived with you for over 6 months, so what about a child that lives with both for 6 months each? who gets to claim?

I own a service based business where I set appointments up weeks in advance. On occasion clients will cancel at the last minute on me. This leaves me with an open slot and a few hours where I can’t earn any money. Can I count those lost dollars that I would have earned if they didn’t cancel as a deduction on my taxes? If so, how?
So what are the losses that the IRS allows you to deduct? Real goods like equipment, theft, etc.?

In my business as a healthcare provider clients occasionally miss appointments or fail to give me the adequate notice of needing to miss an appointment. (In my written policy I ask for 48 hours advance notice of canceling appointments or I will charge for the missed session.) I will charge for missed or late canceled appointments the same rate as if they were at the appointment. Sometimes, when it is a first time missing or when someone is deathly ill, I will waive that missed appointment fee.

In the past, I would not record the missed appointment in my billing statement. Does it make a tax difference to bill for the missed appointment and then issue a discount or credit waiving the fee so that at the end of the year I can show written-off business as a deduction? Is there a best practice for this type of tax accounting?
The first answer doesn’t quite help me because I still don’t quite get it. Could you put it a bit more simply? Yes, revenue is only what dollars come in. Are the missed fees deductible from that? I am present for the session, therefore I am providing a service and not being paid for it. I appreciate any help and clarification I can get here. Thanks.