When tax season comes around, how much are you saving on tax deductions for your small business? More importantly, do you know how much you could be saving for your business if you took advantage of all the tax deductions available? As it turns out, you could be leaving hundreds—even thousands—on the table when you’re paying your taxes each year. In most cases, business owners just aren’t aware of the many small business tax deductions out there. In other cases, they just aren’t keeping detailed records of their business expenses or don’t want to spend the time and effort itemizing expenses and crunching numbers. For whatever reason, lots of small businesses overpay their taxes each year by not deducting their business expenses. If you think this might be the case for your small business, use this guide to make sure you’re capitalizing on the most overlooked (but valuable) small business tax deductions.

1. 21Overlooked
Business Tax Deductions
That You Need To Know

2. In most cases, small business owners are simply not aware
of the many tax deductions out there for small businesses.
Do you know how much your business could be saving in tax deductions?
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

3. First of all, let’s look at the deductions
you can claim for simply operating your business.
Deducting your business expenses
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

4. As a small business you can deduct up to $5,000 for
both start-up and organizational costs from your tax bill.
This covers any costs paid while you create or
investigate creating an active business.
1. Going
Into Business
Some inventory-based businesses
will manufacture products or purchase them for resale.
If this is your business model, you can deduct
the cost of your inventory, or the cost of the goods you sell.
2. Inventory
(Cost of Goods)
Any utilities that you use for your business
are fully deductible!
This includes things like water, power, trash,
and telephone bills.
3. Utilities
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

5. Most businesses will take out
some form of insurance.
The cost of the business owner’s health insurance,
business continuation insurance, and business
owner’s policy are all 100% deductible.
4. Insurance
If you rent your business property, you can
deduct your lease payments from taxes.
Alternatively, if you run your business from home,
you can also run an eligibility test with the IRS
to see if you are entitled to any deductions.
5. Business
Property Rent
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

6. If you have a car for business purposes,
you can usually deduct anything
considered a car expense.
6. Auto Expenses
If you lease equipment or machinery for your business
you can fully deduct these costs.
This can be anything from printers and copiers,
to vans and trucks.
7. Rent on Equipment
and Machinery
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

7. Paper, boxes, pens, staples…
they may be small, but they
all cost money (which you can
deduct from your taxes).
8. Office Supplies
If you’ve bought or downloaded
software for your business,
this can be deducted.
10. Software
Subscriptions
The cost of any furniture
you buy for your office
can also be deducted!
9. Office Furniture
As long as you can prove they’re
related to your business, you can
claim back any money spent on ordinary
advertising and marketing purchases.
This includes things like billboards,
business cards, and Yellow Pages ads.
11. Advertising
& Marketing
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

8. Entertaining clients with meals and events?
This too can be deducted if necessary to your business.
12. Business
Entertainment
If you’re frequently on the go,
you should definitely look into
deducting your travel expenses.
13. Travel Expenses
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

9. If you have a small business loan, you’ll make
interest payments on what you’re borrowing from the lender.
This might come as a surprise,
but those interest payments are tax deductible.
14. Interest
If you’ve ever lent money to an employee
or vendor without receiving it back,
you can claim that back as ‘bad debt’.
You just need to be able to prove that
it was business debt, rather than personal debt.
15. Bad Debt
As strange as it sounds, the taxes you incur
from just running your business are deductible.
These taxes might be federal, state, and local income,
real estate, employment, or sales taxes.
16. Taxes
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

10. Next, we'll break down the tax deductions
you can claim on your employee or contracted labor expenses.
Deducting your employee and labor expenses
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

11. In general, your employee wages
are fully deductible.
17. Employee
Salaries
You can also deduct certain employee
benefit programs, like education assistance,
dependent care assistance, life insurance
adoption assistance, or qualified
retirement plan accounts.
18. Employee
Benefit Programs
Employee gifts are 100% deductible
up to $25 per year, per employee.
19. Employee Gifts
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

12. Do you use independent contractors
or freelancers as a part of your labor force?
The cost of hiring contracted labor
is fully tax deductible.
20. Contracted
Labor
If you ever need to hire a legal or accounting
professional for your business, you can
deduct 100% of their fees.
21. Legal and
Professional Fees
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

13. All of these options are there
for your small business,
but it’s up to YOU to use them.
Stay organized!
: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know: 21 Overlooked Small Business Tax Reductions You Need to Know

14. Small Business Loans Made Easy
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