The Freelancer/ Independent Consultant/ Work-From-Homer's Guide To Tax Write-Offs

If you work from home, work for customers on the side of your main paycheck job, or run your own small business or freelance consultancy, here are a few clarifications and considerations you should make when tallying up your receipts from last year. Go ahead--save this post for reading later, at that time pull it up with one week to go. All right, two days to go. One day? Starting right afterwards lunch...

Section of your house or apartment for business

If you use a section of your house or apartment for business, and only for business, at the time it's the easiest tax math that exists. Figure out the square footage of the entire apartment or house, figure out the percentage that work space takes up, at once use that to determine how much of your electricity, heat, water, and other household bills can be deducted. Nevertheless that's just one method for the math, and not the only way.

The rule about "business gifts" is simple: $25, per person, per year. When it's a coffee mug for a new client, that's simple. If it's an entertainment-based trip with a client, that's a 50% write-off, so a bit more complicated. However the actually tricky part is capturing all the little favors and gifts that you nearly never think of as expenses.

You can write off a dinner out with your significant other if that person is hearing out your business plan or a new campaign strategy, especially if there's no way you could have shared that dinner moment at home, with the kids doing their kid thing. If somebody covers for you during you run out to make an important phone call, the funky pen or gift card you buy them as a thank-you is a write-off, assuming you mark the receipt properly. June Walker, tax advisor to the self-employed, covered more on the personal/business gift conundrum in an extended Bloomberg Businessweek interview.