Just Like Any Business Owner

来源: 2012-01-06 21:20:41 [旧帖] [给我悄悄话] 本文已被阅读:

Milage deduction has to be documented as when, where, what reason and total miles driven. It must be business related.

If you spend $200/mon on your mobile phone plan, it has to be justified. $200/mon can get you unlimited talk plan. You have to justify you do receive so many business calls and any other plans such as 1000 minutes will cost more. A busy realtor can justify this, but if you own only 1 rental property, it is hard. Also you have to prove you use your mobile plan primarily for business. If your monthly statement shows you make phone calls mostly to your friends, you may get into trouble.

Camera, laptop, printer are the same, you have to justify there is a business need. These equipments have to be depreciated (you can not write off the entire purchase price in 1st year). Some of assests are 3 year depreciation, some of them are 5 year and 7 year. Your rental property (just improvement) is 27.5 year depreciation.

For meal, you can write off 50%. Again it has to be business related. For example, you plan to stay at home to have lunch on Saturday. But your tenant request you come to fix a plumbing issue, and you have to eat between the job, this meal is 50% deductable.

Seriously before you decide to write off anything, check with your CPA.