Key Takeaways
If you're an independent contractor, you can deduct work related expenses that are ordinary and necessary. The cost of work related travel—driving to and from work sites, client meetings, and picking up tools and materials—typically is one of your largest deductions.
You can use capital losses to offset capital gains during a tax year, allowing you to remove some income from your tax return. You can use a capital loss to offset ordinary income up to $3,000 per year If you don't have capital gains to offset the loss.
A casualty is the damage, destruction, or loss of property resulting from an identifiable event that is sudden, unexpected, or unusual. A sudden event is one that is swift, not gradual or progressive. An unexpected event is one that is ordinarily unanticipated and unintended.
If your total costs for starting a business are $50,000 or less, you can deduct up to $5,000 of those costs in your first tax year. These deductions decrease dollar by dollar if your startup costs exceed $50,000, and the remainder is deductible over 15 years.
In many cases, business owners can deduct business losses from their personal income. The ability to do so depends on the legal structure of the business. For example, sole proprietors and owners of pass-through entities like LLCs and S corporations can typically use business losses to offset personal income.
Under permanent law, taxpayers can only deduct such losses to the extent each loss exceeds $100, and their total exceeds 10% of the taxpayer's adjusted gross income (AGI). The damaged item does not need to be repaired or replaced for the taxpayer to claim the deduction.
You may not deduct casualty and theft losses covered by insurance, unless you file a timely claim for reimbursement, and you reduce the loss by the amount of any reimbursement or expected reimbursement.
You are able to carry forward losses for up to 20 years. If you didn't pay any taxes in the past two years, you should carry an NOL forward. Or, you might want to carry forward losses if you expect your income to greatly increase in upcoming years.
Losses from the sale of personal–use property, such as your home or car, are not deductible.
Current tax law does not allow you to take a capital gains tax break based on your age. In the past, the IRS granted people over the age of 55 a tax exemption for home sales, though this exclusion was eliminated in 1997 in favor of the expanded exemption for all homeowners.
Independent contractors generally report their income on Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss from Business (Sole Proprietorship). Also file Schedule SE (Form 1040), Self-Employment Tax if your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more.
By taking a business deduction instead of an itemized deduction, you reduce your adjusted gross income (AGI) and your self-employment tax. Whenever possible, it's best to deduct an expense or a portion of an expense as a business expense rather than an itemized deduction, as this generally increases your tax savings.
It is illegal for a contractor to pay, waive, or discount your insurance deductible. It is insurance fraud if homeowners don't pay their deductible. Some contractors offer waived or discounted deductibles as a selling point to their customers.
The savings guideline states that for every $1,000 of monthly income you want to generate in your golden years, you'll need to have $240,000 saved in your retirement account. The rule assumes a 5% annual withdrawal rate and a 5% return.
The Internal Revenue Code (IRC) provides that any person who, in the course of its trade or business, receives in excess of $10,000 in cash in a single transaction (or in two or more related transactions) must report the transaction to the IRS and furnish a statement to the payer.
The 40/30/20/10 rule is a budgeting framework that separates what you earn into categories for spending your after-tax income: 40% for needs. The biggest category for most people is day-to-day needs. This includes housing, utilities, transportation, health care and groceries.
Your claimed capital losses will come off your taxable income, reducing your tax bill. Your maximum net capital loss in any tax year is $3,000. The IRS limits your net loss to $3,000 (for individuals and married filing jointly) or $1,500 (for married filing separately).
An activity is presumed for profit if it makes a profit in at least three of the last five tax years, including the current year (or at least two of the last seven years for activities that consist primarily of breeding, showing, training or racing horses).
If your expenses are more than your income, the difference is a net loss. You usually can deduct your loss from gross income on page 1 of Form 1040 or 1040-SR. But in some situations your loss is limited. See Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business (For Individuals Who Use Schedule C), for more information.
Contractors and other self-employed workers can deduct home office expenses, advertising expenses, accounting fees, phone bills, equipment depreciation, travel and car expenses, healthcare and retirement contributions, and more from their taxable income.
An LLC can avoid double taxation by electing to be taxed as a pass-through entity. If the LLC has just one member, that owner can be taxed as either a disregarded entity ( and pay business tax on their individual return) or an S Corporation. Either will help them avoid double taxation.
LLC members don't need to pay themselves a salary, but doing so helps to separate personal and business profits, which can support your personal liability protection, among other personal benefits.