[Coltrane]

This might be really simple, but I have no idea. This is the first year ive really made enough money to worry about taxes, and my tax bill looks to be MUCH higher than expected.

1. If I work from home, but I get a W2, can I still write off a home office? ALL of my work is from home. (With my 1099 I see a place on Turbotax for home business info, but not W2)

2. Can I write of previously purchased items as a business expense if I use them only for my business? (i.e. a guitar I previously owned that I now use only to teach guitar)


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[kin0kin]

The only way you can expense the guitar is to depreciate it, and it may seem unrealistic to fully depreciate the item in say...1 year. You can slowly write it to expense by straight line for a couple of years though.

 

[Blitzula]

http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw82.html

 

[Etrips]

Get a professional to do your taxes for you, it's going to be alot better than using Turbo Tax :/

 

[Uncle Erik]

Careful with the home office deductions. Those often get flagged for audit and they're pretty strict about the rules. Go to:

http://www.irs.gov

and download Publication 587. It's 31 pages long, so I'm not going to post it here. It deals exactly with your question.

I'd recommend making an appointment with a CPA to discuss that. You'll get expert advice, it'll be confidential, and you'll be ready for an audit if the worst happens. It might seem expensive to hire someone, but it's a lot cheaper and easier than having to defend yourself after the fact.

 

[Pm@c]

Man I dont know how stressful personal audits are, but I definately know how stressful business audits are. I worked at a small place that was audited twice in a year, and man its a pain in the ass. It is a solid-state starter factor, and we had to count every little wire clip and cut wire pieces. It was really annoying.

 

[Coltrane]

Thanks for the responses! This is quite a headache so far, but I think I have most things figured out now. I am leaning towards going to accountant as well.