It's Tee-AX Time!

[polishmafia]

Originally Posted by tpunx99GSX

I had a lot of deductions being in IT we can claim home office, internet, power, cell phone etc.

Tom, I know we've had our differences... but I pray you don't get audited. The actual rules state that if you have a desk, if you have a place in an office where you can sit your ass in every day, even if on call - None of that is deductible. Trust me, I've checked it every year for the last ten.

Take the actual written law and read it. Technically you can not deduct those things you mentioned.

[tpunx99GSX]

Originally Posted by polishmafia

Tom, I know we've had our differences... but I pray you don't get audited. The actual rules state that if you have a desk, if you have a place in an office where you can sit your ass in every day, even if on call - None of that is deductible. Trust me, I've checked it every year for the last ten.

Take the actual written law and read it. Technically you can not deduct those things you mentioned.

The main thing that allowed me to do that is that we are claiming it under the 1090 that i was during the first part of the year. Basically that i was my own business (sub contractor), so therefore a portion of my primary residence could be written off as a deductable, along with a portion of my electricity, internet, phone, etc. All items i was paying as a part of business expense.

[Halon]

Originally Posted by tpunx99GSX

The main thing that allowed me to do that is that we are claiming it under the 1090 that i was during the first part of the year. Basically that i was my own business (sub contractor), so therefore a portion of my primary residence could be written off as a deductable, along with a portion of my electricity, internet, phone, etc. All items i was paying as a part of business expense.

So you claimed a portion of your internet, phone, etc correct? If you use the internet at your house 80% for personal, 20% for business, you can't (legally) write off 100% of your internet cost as business, at least that is how I understand it.

[tpunx99GSX]

Originally Posted by Halon

So you claimed a portion of your internet, phone, etc correct? If you use the internet at your house 80% for personal, 20% for business, you can't (legally) write off 100% of your internet cost as business, at least that is how I understand it.

Only for the months i worked did i claim the internet usage. And i didnt claim the entire thing.
Regardless, how would they really be able to PROVE what percentage you were actually utilising the internet for business or personal. They gonna look at logs of port usage as to what was using RDP or the like?
i am 100% sure i will not be audited, every thing we claimed was completly justified. The tax guy even was going to charge my milage of driving to and from work against my current W2 (also a contract position), but turned out the standard deduction did more for us than itemizing would on that.
Its alot easier to prove the write off of the home office when you actually have a dedicated room like we do that its only purpose is for computer and office work. Also what they do is take the sq footage of the room you have dedicated, and divide that by the sq footage of the home, then all other deductions are based on that percentage. So basically, when it comes to electricity, gas, and other home expenses it would be only 17% of the bill (i think thats what it was for us). Internet usage at the time was more like 70% business, 30% personal.