How Work at Home Parents Can Deduct Their at Home Expenses at Tax Time
There are tons of parents who choose to work from home in order to benefit their family. Mostly it is family with young children. The reason for this is that most people find childcare to be overly expensive in addition to the fact that parents just want to spend more time with their children.
What some parents don’t realize is that you can actually deduct some of your expenses on your tax return, just because you are working from home. In order to do this you will need to make sure that you keep very accurate records.
The first thing that you will need to do is find out if you qualify. When it comes to the IRS they have very strict guidelines that you have to follow exactly. One of the qualifications is that you need to work at home on a regular basis in order to be able to deduct certain expenses.
There are some people who choose to stay home from work once in a while, but if this is your situation then you will not quality. The best thing to do in order to find out if you qualify is to talk to your tax preparer and they will be able to tell you what you qualify for and the steps that you need to take. In some cases you may be able to even deduct your water, heat, and electric.
They usually allow you to deduct a portion of your average yearly bill. There are some other indirect expenses that you may be able to take advantage of so make sure you ask about these. As your tax preparer will tell you it is all about the records that you keep. That is one point that I can not stress enough.
Bad records can mean the difference between getting money back from the government and owing the government money. If you are not good when it comes to keeping records then you may want to invest some money in hiring someone to do this for you. It may mean a little more money up front but in the long run you will definitely benefit. There are also some special deductions that are allowed for various types of businesses.
This would include but not limited to deductions on your home loan, and in other areas. The bottom line is that you need to ask your tax preparer as many questions as possible. If they are not willing to explain thing to you thoroughly then you may be better off speaking with a different tax consultant. There really are a lot of allowable deductions for parents who choose to work at home, so make every effort to get what you can.
