Should I Be Thinking About Taxes in August?

The last thing family child care providers probably think about in August is taxes!

Nevertheless, it’s always worthwhile to understand what’s deductible for your business, no matter what the month. Here are six tax tips that might help you save money:

1) Do you have a garden that you use to teach the children in your care? If so, save receipts for garden gloves, rake, shovel, kneeling pad, plants, seeds, flowers, flower pot, trowel, garden hose, etc. Deduct your Time-Space Percentage of these expenses.

2) Online classified ads are inexpensive and tax deductible. Here are some of the more popular sites where you may want to consider posting your ad:  www.daycare.com;  care.com and daycaresource.com.

3) You can deduct these business telephone expenses: phone purchase, long distance calls, caller id, custom ringing, headset, repair fees, answering machine, business listing in the Yellow Pages, TDD (Telecommunication Device for the Deaf), etc.

4) If your business liability insurance rates increased this year, compare prices at my online family child care insurance directory. Such insurance is 100% deductible.

5) Deduct children’s magazines and others that contain recipes, parenting tips, or business information: Sesame Street, Scholastic, Ranger Rick, Jack and Jill, National Geographic World, Parents, Good Housekeeping, Pre-K Today, etc.

6) If you are thinking about putting up a business sign on your front lawn, car, window, fence or porch you should check out the inexpensive signs at www.vistaprint.com. It’s all deductible.

As a general rule, if you purchase something that is used 100% for your business, you can deduct 100% of the cost. If it's used by both your business and your family, use your Time-Space Percentage.

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/712823

For a listing over over 1,000 allowable business deductions, see my book Family Child Care Record Keeping Guide.