As tax day fades away in our forward-looking mirrors (unless you filed an extension of course), I thought I’d say thank you to the IRS for allowing me so many opportunities to lower what I owe in taxes. When you work for yourself, you take on all kinds of risks, especially the risk of failure. SECP’s (self-employed creative professionals) are mavericks, are self-made, work part-time and get to choose which 12 hours of the day they work. SECP’s have to pay for office space, communications, tools of the trade, taxes, retirement contributions, and of course all of the personal expenses: mortgage, rent, food, school, insurance, utilities…you get the picture.
The IRS helps us SECP’s mitigate these risks by allowing us many specialized types of deductions. For example, work from home and have a dedicated office? Ka-Ching! Make contributions to a SEP? Ka-Ching! Have a year where you didn’t make any profit? Ka-Ching! Do you attend industry conferences, subscribe to industry rags, pay for online training? Ka-Ching! Ka-Ching! Ka-Ching!
Keep receipts and have solid records of all food, travel and entertainment expenses for your business-related activities. Do you like to travel? Can you legitimately perform some of your work while traveling? Guess what? Ka-Ching! Can your spouse legitimately help? Ka-Ching!
There are of course many other deductions and you’ll have to find a great accountant (or preferably a CPA) that knows how to maximize these money-making and money-saving opportunities. It is your responsibility to search out and interview great support people so that you can do what you do best.
We are Weapons of Mass Deductions……
Ka-Ching!
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