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March 1, 2007
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Yahoo column: Deductive reasoning for the modern taxpayer

It’s tax time, and every year I think to myself that I should be deducting everything. Really. All my income comes from freelance writing, and since there’s almost nothing in my life that I don’t write about, maybe I can deduct everything.

After years of thinking I should do this but not really doing it, I finally took action. I talked about my deduction plan with Anne-Marie Fisher, director of tax services for CBIZ.

Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Me: “I spent a lot of money on expensive eye cream so that I looked good for my Yahoo! photo. Can I deduct that?”

Anne: “They don’t like cosmetics or clothing that they say you could use outside of your article.”

Me: “But I wouldn’t have had to look that good if I didn’t take the photo.”

Anne: “But you looked good after the photo. The IRS is really tough on things that help your appearance.”

Me: “What if the cream made me look bad?”

Read the column at Yahoo! Finance


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Posted to: Money | Working from home


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» Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive Why You May Need a Business Credit Card… Even If You Don’t Run a Business «

[…] Why You May Need a Business Credit Card… Even If You Don’t Run a Business With the explosion of opportunities to make money online, even cubicle commandos might earn a little self-employment income. If you want to keep as much of that income as possible, you need to track the expenses that helped you acquire it. No, you can’t deduct the cost of the expensive eye cream that made you look good for your blog’s head shot. You can, however, deduct ordinary and necessary expenses which are aimed primarily at supporting your business and not your personal life. […]

7 Comments »

I love this! As a self-employed person for years and years, it seems to me that just about every breath I take is related to finding a way to supporting my family. This is as funny as get-out, and a good picture of the hapless individual up against the bureaucratic wall of the Institution. What a hoot!

I’m going to share your column with the CPAs in my office. I suspect that they’re going to get a kick out of it!

Funny! Next time you have a photo op, coordinate it with a spa appointment :) See if that flies.

yeah, what if?

” Me: “What if the cream made me look bad?” ‘

I’m busting a gut! Just found your site (from Rick T.’s link!) - the wealth of information and original content you have on here is incredible - to say the least!

Thank you for sharing your fantastic gift with ‘the world’ :)

Peace,
~Ankakay

Nice piece. I’ve been keeping track of the money we spend on wine for WineLog.net. We’ll see if it flies with our accountant come tax time.

His argument: “…but you still have a buzz after you review the wine.”

My argument: “But a wine buzz is not necessarily a good thing.”

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Penelope Trunk is a columnist at the Boston Globe. She has launched three startups and endured an IPO, a merger and a bankruptcy. more >

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