Weekly Business Tip: Spring Cleaning

With warm weather spreading across the country, spring cleaning time is here.

As a family child care provider, you want to take advantage of the many business deductions associated with indoor and outdoor cleaning.

Costs associated with the cleaning and maintaining of outdoor space where children play are probably at least partly deductible as a business expense. These can include: lawn mower, gas for the lawn mower, garden rake and hose, hoe, shovel, garbage bags, mulch, plants, tree, tree removal, wheel barrow, and so on.

Indoor cleaning costs can include: window cleaner, paper towels, floor polish, wet/dry mop, broom, vacuum cleaner, shop vac, sponges, disinfectant, steam cleaner, pail or bucket, air fresheners, and so on.

You can also deduct the cost of hiring someone to do your indoor cleaning or mowing your lawn. If you hire a self-employed person (rather than a company) you must file IRS  Form 1099 Misc. if you pay any one person $600 or more.

Unless you are spending money to clean exclusive business use rooms, use your Time-Space Percentage to determine the business portion of these costs you can deduct.

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1622679

For a list of more than 1,000 allowable business deductions, see my book Family Child Care Record Keeping Guide.