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A Tax Savings Guide to the Holidays: Tax Deductible Business Party

You can save tax money by throwing a holiday party – but make sure it’s business-related

In parts one and two of our guide to saving on taxes during the holidays, we talked about scheduling a business meeting on the way to visit relatives and deducting part of your travel expenses as well as putting a tax deductible gift to yourself under the tree.

Another great idea for saving tax money during the holidays is to throw a tax deductible holiday party for your employees or customers.

Not only is throwing a party a great way to get into the holiday spirit, it can boost employee morale and make your customers/clients happy.

But it’s not all fun and games. Your party must be directly related to your business in order for you to deduct it. Essentially what this means is you can’t go too crazy. The IRS will disallow anything it considers lavish or extravagant as well as anything that isn’t directly related to your business. Continue reading “A Tax Savings Guide to the Holidays: Tax Deductible Business Party”

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Business Travel Tax Deductions

Many of the expenses involved in a business trip are tax deductible

Those who have to do a lot of traveling for work will be relieved to know that you can deduct many of those expenses and thus significantly lower your tax bill.

What travel expenses can I claim?

According to the IRS, you can claim the “ordinary and necessary expenses of traveling away from home for your business, profession, or job.”

Be warned: the expenses cannot be “lavish or extravagant” in the eyes of the IRS. Obviously no personal expenses are deductible either. It might make sense to exclude questionable expenses from your return as they can increase the chance of you getting audited.

The travel expenses you can deduct include Continue reading “Business Travel Tax Deductions”

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Freelancing, Federal Business Income Tax, and You

If you’re a small business owner, a Fortune 500 company, or somewhere in between, chances are you’ve had to deal with freelance employees (aka 1099 employees aka contract employees). These are people who, rather than working for your company, work for themselves. Instead of coming in from 9-5 every day, they work on a single project or for a few hours a day. And they are also affected greatly by federal business income tax law.

And, of course, when someone you are using is affected, your business is affected too. Here’s the lowdown on how federal business income tax affects your freelancers and your company:
Continue reading “Freelancing, Federal Business Income Tax, and You”