Paul Michael’s Wisebread blog featured 101
tax deductions for bloggers and free-lancers. Here’s a random selection, with
his notes:
Computer equipment insurance
Food and drink purchased on business trips
Client entertainment (be reasonable…not sure you’ll get away with
Strip Club deductions)
Postage costs (Stamps.com is ideal for keeping track of postage, and
the service itself is tax-deductible)
PayPal and Western Union fees
Post Office Box fees.
Safe Deposit Box fees.
Self-storage fees, especially useful if your files and records are
spilling over into your garage and you need extra space.
Advice. Any professional advice you pay for that pertains to your
business is a tax deduction, and that includes counseling or coaching.
Membership dues to labor unions (do bloggers have a union?)
Charity work or donations (this one’s tricky. It’s limited to your
out-of-pocket costs, not the final cost of the product. In my case, I’ve done
some writing for charity, which is not applicable because you can’t deduct time
spent. But any materials used during your charity work can be deducted).
Prizes and
giveaways. Here at Wise Bread, we give away some very nice things. Often, they
are generously given to us as gifts to pass on to you, or readers. But when we
go out and spend money on a prize to give away, that can be deducted, as well
as the cost to mail it out to you.
Business furniture. If you use it exclusively for your blogging or
freelancing, then anything from a chair or filing cabinet to the whole desk can
be written off.
Business functions. If you hold a little get-together for clients,
even just one or two, then everything from the rental of the room (or golf
course…know what I mean?) to food and drink can be deducted.
To which I would add: some of these you have to be a bit careful—for instance, on business trips, if you take extra time on the trip to be a tourist, that part is not deductible. If in doubt, check with your accountant, but it’s worth having a look at the list to see if there’s anything you (or the accountant) are missing.
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