I have a website that I make a substantial amount of income from, and I know that for tax purposes it’s easier to prove business deductions if you have one account for personal expenses and one just for business expenses.

My question is, does that second checking account need to be in the business’ name (establishing a dba/trade name) or can both accounts be in my name?

i am a freelance graphic designer, i want to know if the following qualify for my business expenses
1. Playstation 3 Gaming System and games
2. Timewarner Cable triple play subscription
3. iPad
4. Netflix subscription

I work full time out of state for a company, in which I have to provide my own internet. I do not have enough to itemize my deductions on a schedule A, so I am not able to include this expense in there. I do however have freelance income and loss that I fill in on a schedule c-ez. Is is OK to include my internet bill that is used primarily for my full time job in my itemized losses for my freelance job? And if so, I read somewhere if you have w-2 income, you cannot claim more than 2% of your income in business expenses, would this apply?

–My wife has a 40/hr office job, plus does independent consulting out of the house in Education.
–I am self-employed, with my own office, plus I work out of the house as a writer.

Thanks to great answers on this board, I’ve about got a handle on how to do my taxes. But wanted to get some verification on my approach, with one follow-up question:

Based on the above, we will both file separate Schedule Cs this year (because we have separate business types), with separate deduction lists for travel and business expenses. We both have an office room in our house, with separate desks, and therefore claim dual home offices, which we separate on floor space (it is a 20×20 room, so we will both claim 10×10 for each) plus I claim my regular downtown office for myself.

My last question: We both share a car for business. What about when inputing items like auto insurance? Do we put 50% of insurance cost on hers, and 50% on mine? Or do we just put 100% on one or the other?

Thanks again!
My tax program seems to separate out a portion as business vs. personal, so it just asks me to put in the total insurance amount, repair amount, etc. So when I’m talking about 50/50 separation, I’m just talking about inputing half of insurance under her Sch C and half under mine.

So… last minute taxes, coz I’ve been putting it off for fear of the headache I’d get (and am getting).

I’m self-employed, and went through and deducted all business expenses (rent for home office space, computer stuff, stationary, supplies, etc, etc…). I also deducted my insurance premiums as a business expense, but then did other medical expenses as personal expenses.

However, not having many personal deductions, my medical expenses don’t seem to be enough to take any deduction, and being rather poor (oh woe is me) I’d prefer deducting medical expenses as a business expense if I can… can I? And if so, where do I do that? I only see a section for insurance… not misc. medical expenses.

Thankyou so much!!!
Nothing’s paid with credit card… all debit/bank card, and I have the bank records and receipts for everything. No interest. I don’t even have any credit cards.

My medical expenses exceed 7.5%, but it still won’t let me deduct them as those are pretty much the only personal expenses I have (most everything is business, as I work from home, so can deduct portions of utilities, rent, phone, internet, etc…) so I don’t have enough personal expenses total to get any deduction apparently (?).

I don’t make enough for them to bother auditing me… they’d be spending more to audit me than they’d get back (if they got anything back, as I have receipts for everything and they’re all legit).

Basically, all misc. medical expenses are through insurance (what insurance wouldn’t cover, etc…) which IS business, so…???

Ugh.

If anyone could further clarify I’d appreciate it (I realise I’m probably arguing a moot point, but hopefully someone can point that out?)! Thanks!!!
The verdict: taxes are way too confusing. Bah.

Thankyou to those who tried to help! I appreciate it.

I did a bit of sleuthing, and according to "Topic 502 – Medical and Dental Expenses" on the IRS’ website, I CAN deduct misc. medical expenses on " Form 1040, Schedule A". And I did… and it helped a lot. The info is here in case anyone needs it in the future: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502.html

Cheers, and thankyou!

Off to the 24 hour post office to avoid the hoards tomorrow (ugh!)!
Kathykoul… thank you, but it’s already been clarified. I checked online (one of the links listed) and out of nervousness called the IRS after sending out my taxes (and was on hold for like an hour) and they verified that I can, in fact, take them as business expenses since I’m self-employed.

Im wondering if I should go to H and R block to finish up my taxes. Last year I had them do ALL the work and it was like 0 I paid, but this year I have done most of the work. I have made a list of how much income I made, how much deductions I should have for business expenses(self employed) and all of that, but I just need help figuring out how much taxes I should owe on these sums or get back. I don’t want to go through H & R block if its going to be 0 again since I did most of the work myself. Im wondering if it will be significantly cheaper than last year since I did most of the work

Hi there. I am going through Turbo Tax and am getting more confused. I had three jobs last year: two with standard W2’s and one with 1099 Misc income as I am an Independent contractor for them. I have a good amount of business expenses related to the 1099 income (k out of 12,500 income) Do I need to fill out a schedule C? I don’t have an LLC or anything of that nature. Not sure where to put these deductions. I originally put them with personal but maybe they should go directly with the business income? They keep asking me what basis. Cash, actual, etc. I am out of my league here! Sorry if this seems confusing; I remember why I hated accounting in college. thanks to anyone in advance!

Yes, but only on his 0,000 salary and any unearned income from past investments (which are put into an independently managed blind trust during his tenure to avoid conflict of interest).

He does, however, get to live in and/or use The White House, Camp David, Air Force 1, the Presidential limos, etc. etc. etc., and have ALL the living expenses for himself (including all food, tailor made clothing, gasoline, transportation, utilities, medical care, security, golf outings, vacations, grand parties and banquets, theater performances seated in the Presidential box, private showings of new release movies, command performances by the greatest musical artists, personal servants, private secretaries, master chefs, and personal trainers) and his family paid for, TAX FREE — that is, these benefits and perqs don’t add to his taxable income. So basically, he is provided one of the most lavish life-styles in the world free of charge, and then paid 0k per year on top of that, on which he pays the standard tax rate — though he can’t claim any "uncompensated business expenses" as a deduction.

Star and rate if you like! OK? )

Dr. Mcfee formed a medical corporation that had the following business expenses for the year:

Wages-,500
Utilities-,840
Interest-,000
Property taxes-49.00
Depreciation-,916.50
Other deductions- 00
Together they all equal out to be ,505.50

The corporations gross income for the year was 4,850. What is the federal corporate income tax for the year?

A. ,249.50
B. ,336.13
C. ,137.25
D. Not given.

I need to do estimated tax for having worked under that 1099 form. Now, when you claim deduction under schedule C under Form 1040 ES, if you don’t have all the receipts for business expenses (meal, transporation, cell phone), can your credit card statements serve as receipts in case IRS opts to audit me?

If you used cash, and have no reciepts, is it better to NOT claim deductions for such receiptless business expenses?

Many thanks.