SMALL BIZ TAX LADY

For 2018, you can elect the de minimis safe harbor to expense assets costing $2,500 or less ($5,000 with audited financial statements or something similar).

The term “safe harbor” means that the IRS will accept your expensing of the qualified assets if you properly abide by the rules of the safe harbor.

Here are four benefits of this safe harbor:

Safe harbor expensing is superior to Section 179 expensing because you don’t have the recapture period that can complicate your taxes.
Safe harbor expensing takes depreciation out of the equation.
Safe harbor expensing simplifies your tax and business records because you don’t have the assets cluttering your books.
The safe harbor does not reduce your overall ceiling on Section 179 expensing.

Here’s how the safe harbor works. Say you are a small business that elects the $2,500 ceiling for safe harbor expensing and you buy two desks costing $2,100 each. On the invoice, you see the quantity “two” and the total cost of $4,200, plus sales tax of $378 and a $200 delivery and setup charge, for a total of $4,778.

Before this safe harbor, you would have capitalized each desk at $2,389 ($4,778 ÷ 2) and then either Section 179 expensed or depreciated it. You would have kept the desks in your depreciation schedules until you disposed of them.

Now, with the safe harbor, you simply expense the desks as office supplies. This makes your tax life much easier.

To benefit from the safe harbor, you and I do a two-step process. It works like this:

Step 1. For safe harbor protection, you must have in place an accounting policy—at the beginning of the tax year—that requires expensing of an amount of your choosing, up to the $2,500 or $5,000 limit. I can help you with this.

Step 2. When I prepare your tax return, I make the election on your tax return for you to use safe harbor expensing. This requires that I attach the election statement to your federal tax return and file that tax return by the due date (including extensions).

If you want to use this safe harbor in 2018, we need to get this set up so that it is in place on January 1. Contact me at 855-743-5765, or email me at help@howardtaxprep.com

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General Information

Business Mileage: Be aware of IRS assertions of Metropolitan Area.

November 26, 2018 Howard Tax Prep LLC

The IRS has ruled that you “may deduct daily transportation expenses incurred in going between your residence and a temporary work location outside the metropolitan area where you live and normally work.”

In this favorable ruling, you find two possible impediments:

1. Temporary work location
2. Metropolitan area

Temporary Work Location

The “temporary work location” is a location where you realistically expect that the work at this location will, and does in fact, last for one year or less. The temporary work location rule applies both inside and outside your metropolitan area.

Metropolitan Area

In an audit of Edward Harris, a surveyor, the IRS disallowed 23,000 business miles because Harris was inside his metropolitan area when he drove from his home to work locations that required round trips of 100 to 162 miles. In this audit, the IRS considered the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area as Harris’s metropolitan area.

Harris took the IRS to court, where he lost. But Harris thought the court decision unfair; he appealed it, and the Ninth Circuit in an unpublished opinion overruled the lower court on the metropolitan area definition and remanded the case back to the Tax Court.

Result. Harris kept the 23,000 deductible business miles for his trips from his home that were outside his metropolitan area.

So, what is the radius of your metropolitan area for this rule? Fifty miles from your home may be a good rule of thumb because:

• IRC Section 162(h) defines 50 miles as the local area for state legislators.
• Reg. Section 5e.274-8(a) defines 50 miles as the local area for a member of Congress.
• The federal government defines “metropolitan area” for IRS personnel and other federal employees as a mileage radius of not greater than 50 miles within or outside the limits of the physical location of an IRS office. This is consistent with the regulations in 5 CFR 550.112(j) and 5 CFR 551.422(d), and it’s found in Internal Revenue Manual section 6.550.1.1.7—Time Spent Traveling (last revised: 12-10-2009).

How to Totally Eliminate the Metropolitan Area Problem

If you have an office in your home that qualifies as a principal place of business within the meaning of section 280A(c)(1)(A), you may deduct daily transportation expenses incurred in going between your home and another work location in the same trade or business, regardless of whether the other work location is regular or temporary and regardless of the distance.

The principal office in the home creates:

• Business miles for trips from your home to your regular office
• Business trips to all temporary stops, whether inside or outside your metropolitan area—regardless of the distance

Although we’ve given you the basics, this is not an all-inclusive article. Should you have questions, or need business tax preparation, business entity creation, business insurance, or business compliance assistance please contact us online, or call our office at 855-743-5765. Make sure to join our newsletter for more tips on reducing taxes, and increasing your wealth.

General Information

The Journey Begins

November 24, 2018November 24, 2018 Howard Tax Prep LLC

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

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Thanks for joining me! My name is Trudy M. Howard, and I’m the small business tax lady better known by the hashtag #smallbiztaxlady, and I’m here to help you on your entrepreneurship journey! I hold an IRS AFSP record of completion, and I am listed on the IRS.gov Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications. In addition to my tax specialist credentials, I am also a licensed insurance broker certified to sell life, health, commercial, auto, and Medicare part C health plans. Should you need the services of a notary, I’m also an Illinois registered notary.

Over the last 15 years I’ve owned several business ranging from an inventory based candle business (in which I used raw materials to manufacture the product), to an incorporated insurance agency (ALEM Agency Inc.) that specializes in covering the hard to insure. In 2012 my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer, and within 3 months I had to bury her; however, as an ongoing form of therapy, later in 2012 I decided to found a tax exempt non profit 501(c)(3) organization Senior Resource Group Inc. Senior Resource Group Inc. help seniors (and those that are disabled) find low cost drugs & understand their Medicare options.

As you can see I am experienced & knowledgeable in many areas. I am here to answer your questions pertaining to small business tax planning, small business insurance, new home owner tax preparation, college student tax preparation, business compliance, entity creation, retirement plans, college savings plans, tax resolution (tax problem help), and tax planning for small businesses & individuals. If you have a tax question please email me at questions@howardtaxprep.com

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