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Essay On Sole Proprietors

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As a sole proprietor, you are able to deduct certain business expenses from your overall income. There are certain business expenses that you want to make sure you track carefully because the IRS tends to securitize these types of business expenses more closely.
#1 Home Office
One of the biggest expenses for most sole proprietors is their home office. The IRS has set it up so that you can deduct the portion of your bills, such as your energy, internet and even your mortgage, based on the percentage of your home that you use as a home office.
For example, in a 1,000 square foot home, if you use 100 square feet for your home office, you can deduct 10% of the cost of all of your home bills as business expenses.
This requires some really …show more content…

You are going to want to keep track of where you are traveling to and from, as well as why you need to make the trip. For example, are you driving to meet with a potential customer or are you driving to pick up supplies for your business? Be sure to note the reason, as it can be hard to remember the reason for all your trips if your taxes are audited in the future.
Also, be sure to note the starting and ending mileage on your odometer for the trip, as well as calculate the total numbers driven.
#4 Meals & Entertainment
Although meals and entertainment can be deducted as personal expenses, they have to specifically be business expenses for them to count. That means that you need to conduct business during the meals and entertainment, and the purpose of the meals and entertainment needs to be to discuss and foster business relationships.
You need to keep a copy of reach the receipt that went with each meal or ticket that you purchased. You also need to keep nots about who attended each meeting, the purpose of the meeting, and the business matters discussed during the meeting.
#5 Travel
Finally, if you need to travel for business, you are going to want to create a solid paper trail for this expense. Keep track of all the expense elements of the trip, including transportation, lodging, food and event fees. You also need to make sure that you write down and account for the business elements of the trip. For example, if you run a glass business and are going to a glass

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