It’s difficult to say whether anyone other than accountants truly enjoys tax season. I have no thoughts either way because to me it’s just another tedious necessity that must be dealt with once a year. I found an article on LegalZoom.com that I thought would make an interesting post. The article entitled “The complete download on Business Deductions: Cars, Food & Entertainment” is a good resource for those of us in the small business industry who may not utilize an accountant for their taxes. For me, any help is good help, although I use an accountant. So I thought I would include a list of things here in hopes that it might give another business owner insight as to what they can take (and might be missing) for deductions, according to the Godfather of Taxes, the IRS.

According to the article, the Internal Revenue Code allows that you can deduct all “ordinary and necessary” expenses incurred while operating your business. “Ordinary and necessary” is fairly vague term but LegalZoom states that a good guideline to use is “an expense is ordinary if it is ‘common and accepted’ in your industry and necessary if it is ‘helpful and appropriate’ to your business. Let’s break this down a bit:

EXAMPLE DEDUCTIONS:

1. Automobile Expenses
2. Entertainment and Meal Expenses
3. Travel Expenses
4. Rent
5. Certain taxes
6. Legal and professional fees
7. Bad debts
8. Interest
9. Insurance
10. Advertising
11. Employee expenses
12. Donations to business organizations
13. Educational expenses
14. Licenses and regulatory fees
15. Pension plans

It is always best to ask for guidance from a tax adviser, even if you don’t plan to work with an accountant to file your taxes. Almost all of the deductions listed above have certain restrictions which define whether they are actual to your business structure. The complete article can be viewed at: http://www.legalzoom.com/legal-articles/The-Complete-Download-on-Business.html?WT.mc_id=EM_NEWS_FEB08_FINAL&WT.mc_ev=EmailOpen&spMailingID=1474783&spUserID=ODA5MzAyMDUxNgS2&spJobID=45242822&spReportId=NDUyNDI4MjIS1

The IRS also has many helpful resources on their website at: www.irs.gov