I saw a meme recently that said “If you see me talking to myself please forgive me. I’m not crazy. I’m just self-employed and I’m probably just having a staff meeting!”
The reality of being self-employed means you are EVERYTHING in your business. And that can be overwhelming when you are responsible for technology, marketing, accounting, customer service, etc.
Trying to search for ways to cut your tax bill is just one more thing to add to the pile of stuff today. Add to this the fact that what you “Google” may not be 100% accurate or stand up to IRS scrutiny makes the prospect even more daunting.
So let me help you out a little bit here.
What follows are 10 things that, if implemented correctly, can have a significant impact on your tax bill.
- Use a Section 105 plan to create a tax-favored business deduction on your Schedule C for your health care costs.
- Employ your 17 year-old or younger child to reduce your taxable income with no tax impact on your child… I’m already thinking of chores my kids can do now for my business!
- Employ your spouse without paying him or her a W-2 wage… even though we know our spouses are priceless (relationship tip… don’t forget to verbalize that to them every now and again!)
- Rent your office, even your home office, from your spouse to save self-employment taxes.
- Establish that an office in your home is your principal office to increase (yes, increase!) your vehicle deductions and also turn personal home expenses into business expenses.
- Give yourself (and that spouse you hired from tip 3) flowers, fruit, and books as tax-deductible fringe benefits (yet another relationship tip: never hurts to give and show thanks to our significant others!)
- Combine the home office and a heavy SUV, crossover vehicle, or pickup truck to grab big deductions this year.
- Design a business trip that includes some personal days—days you treat as 100 percent business even though you don’t work on those days.
- Use the seven-day tax deduction travel rule to create a business trip that is 87 percent personal vacation.
- Deduct your smartphone and provide smartphones to your employees as tax-free fringe benefits.
If one or more of these looks good to you, let’s connect to see if and how any of these can work for you! Book an appointment with me and let’s start talking about how you can reduce your tax burden through strategic tax planning!
