As I hope you know, when you take a prospect, colleague, or client to a sporting event, you can deduct 50% of your entertainment costs. No big surprise there. After all, other kinds of business entertainment can also be deducted at the 50% rate. What you may not know, however, is that: If you’re entertaining at a certain kind of “charitable sporting event,” your costs are … [Read more...]
How the IRS turns “Home Sweet Home” sour
“Home Sweet Home” is not a simple concept for the IRS. Nope. They delight in creating complications. Which is why they make the troublesome distinction between your “personal home” and your “tax home.” Depending on how you operate your business and where it’s located, you risk losing your valuable business vehicle deductions! Want to avoid crashing your business-vehicle … [Read more...]
A new way to calculate your home office deduction
If you’re claiming a home-office deduction, you know what pain is. You have to calculate, allocate, and prove all your home-office expenses to Uncle Sam’s satisfaction. But starting on January 1, 2013 the IRS began offering you an optional way to simplify the process and avoid jumping through all those hoops. Want to know if the new method for claiming a home-office … [Read more...]
How “related parties” destroy qualified leasehold improvements
Are you a landlord or the lessee? If the answer is “yes,” you can get huge tax breaks when you can take advantage of a qualified leasehold improvement. But if the landlord and the lessee are tax-law defined “related parties,” you can kiss those tax-favored benefits goodbye. For the purposes of a qualified leasehold improvement property, there are fourteen definitions of … [Read more...]
How to get a tax benefit if you total your car (Ouch!)
The IRS has a nice euphemism for a car wreck… They call it an “involuntary conversion.” Of course, no one wants to lose their business vehicle in any kind of crash, wreck, or conversion. But if you ever do (and we hope you don’t!), you should at least get all the tax benefits coming to you. You’ll find out how to get them when you read my new article titled Tax Tips: Ouch! … [Read more...]