# tax questions? from the sick bed.



## SherrieC (Aug 24, 2002)

Oh boy I'm trying to wade through my taxes, while trying to recuperate from Pneumonia, scary. :bash: I can't remember the correct way to go about this 
# 1 I have a cell phone, I ONLY purchased because of the business, my booth is far from my home. I use it for business, also though I use it to talk to hubby. Is My cell phone partially deductible? his {NO}
# 2 and also I took out a few small loans. Is it Just the interest I'm paying that's deductible? Or the total of payments that I've made this year. The money was used as start up capital. 
# 3 , Home use. I sell my stuff away from home. I make it and store it here. It has the Entire dining room, soap drying display, 3/4 of a laundry room, making, & storing of oils. 
# 4 this darn Dell I'm using right now for instance, was purchased On credit this year solely for the business, and yes I do use it a little for recreation. If you can call this what I'm doing recreation, asking tax questions. And its a farm based business and almost anything I do on the net, is farm based. 
so what of the dell Loan is deductible, 
thanks so much for any help, It would probably be clear as mud to me if I wasn't feeling like crud.
Sherrie


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## clovis (May 13, 2002)

Are you filling out the profit and loss for a business form? A Schedule C?


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## SherrieC (Aug 24, 2002)

yes,, filling it out limping through it. For some reason I can't put my fingers on LAST years!!! I'm thinking it's just the Interest that you can claim. 
no clue on the cell phone.


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## clovis (May 13, 2002)

First and foremost, I am not a CPA, accountant or tax pro.

You should be able to write off the cell phone, and the monthly charges. If you paid $100 for the phone, it goes into one category, and the monthly charges go into another category, I believe.

If you read the rules on deducting home use for business, I believe it says that the area should be a sealed off room, dedicated for business use only. It is not supposed to be a common area.

FWIW, I have never taken the home office deduction. It was never worth it for me anyway. I did figure it would save about $113 in gross income including both square footage and utilities, and even less in tax. It was a common area of a small dining room that I used, so I didn't really qualify. I have heard this deduction can be a red flag for the IRS. I would hate to red flag myself to save $27 in tax that really didn't qualify when you study the letter of the law.

The computer should be deductable as well.

Again, I am only familiar with the Schedule C, and *NOT* with farm profit and loss forms. It has also been a year since I even looked at a tax form.

Clove


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## SherrieC (Aug 24, 2002)

oh, to further complicate stuff, I fill out Both Farm, and C as its a Dairy goat farm, and I sell goat milk soap and lotions, + bath etc lip balm shampoo, out of a booth in Elkhart.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Personally, I always do my Schedule C in Turbo Tax (go there via the IRS website's Free File link and it won't cost you anything if your AGI (?) is less than $30K).

I like doing it with Turbo Tax though as they ask me these questions and will clarify when _I_ have questions. 

So that's my advice-- Go to Turbo Tax and let it walk you through the whole thing!


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## SherrieC (Aug 24, 2002)

Hey thanks Erin I'll check that out. I like to do all my taxes on paper, and dot all the i's then go back and e-file anyhow


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## TomK (May 5, 2002)

SherrieC said:


> Oh boy I'm trying to wade through my taxes, while trying to recuperate from Pneumonia, scary. :bash: I can't remember the correct way to go about this
> # 1 I have a cell phone, I ONLY purchased because of the business, my booth is far from my home. I use it for business, also though I use it to talk to hubby. Is My cell phone partially deductible? his {NO}
> # 2 and also I took out a few small loans. Is it Just the interest I'm paying that's deductible? Or the total of payments that I've made this year. The money was used as start up capital.
> # 3 , Home use. I sell my stuff away from home. I make it and store it here. It has the Entire dining room, soap drying display, 3/4 of a laundry room, making, & storing of oils.
> ...


Yes your cell ph is deductable (but only the business percentage part - like 75% businees & 25% personal) either all of it as section 179 expense or you can depreciate it a little each year over 3 years - same for your computer except that would be carried out for 5 years. 
Also your monthly usage bill is deductable.

Only the interest on the loans are deductable...

and home use for business is whatever SQ footage you use of total home space for businees and then you have to figure out what part of household expenses are business and what are personal ex; mortage payments, home insurance, electric, gas, etc etc...


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