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Business expenses are the cost of carrying on a trade or business, and there may be some tax breaks there. But a lot has changed in recent months, and the rules can be complicated.

Are there business deductions you can take advantage of? Yes, but first you have to make sure your expenses are truly business-related. The lines can blur, especially with a small business, because you generally cannot deduct personal, living or family expenses. However, if you have an expense for something that is used partly for business and partly for personal purposes, divide the total cost between the business and personal parts, and then deduct the business part.

An example: You borrow money and use 70% of it for business and the other 30% for a family vacation. You can deduct 70% of the interest as a business expense. The remaining 30% is personal interest and isn’t deductible.

Let’s look at business use of your car and your home:

Business use of your car: If you use your car in your business, you can deduct car expenses. If you use your car for both business and personal purposes, you must divide your expenses based on actual mileage.
Business use of your home: If you use part of your home for business, you may be able to deduct expenses for the business use of your home. These expenses include mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs and depreciation.

Other types of business expenses? Let’s take a closer look:

Employees’ pay: You can generally deduct the pay you give your employees for the services they perform for your business.
Retirement plans: These are savings plans that offer you tax advantages to set aside money for your own, and your employees’, retirements.
Rent expense: Rent is any amount you pay for the use of property you don’t own. In general, you can deduct rent as an expense only if the rent is for property you use in your trade or business. If you have or will receive equity in or title to the property, the rent is not deductible.
Interest: Business interest expense is an amount charged for the use of money you borrowed for business activities.
Taxes: You can deduct various federal, state, local and foreign taxes directly attributable to your trade or business as business expenses.
Insurance: Generally, you can deduct the ordinary and necessary cost of insurance as a business expense, if it is for your trade, business or profession.

This list is not inclusive but endeavors to offer some common business expenses and explains what is and isn’t deductible. Of course, in some cases, expenses might need to be amortized — deducted over a period of several years — if they are startup costs or if they’re related to the purchase of business equipment.

You must capitalize, rather than deduct, some costs that are part of your investment in your business — these are called capital expenses. Capital expenses are considered assets in your business.

Of course, some business deductions can be very complex, so professional advice is necessary to make sure you’re getting what you’re owed without raising any red flags with the IRS. We’re here to help you with your business tax needs.

The following post was authored by Marcel Schwantes, Founder and Chief Human Officer of Leadership From the Core. It originally appeared on Inc.com

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Understanding the traits of bad leadership is your first step

Do you work in a toxic environment under bad leadership? If you do, and you choose to keep your job, there comes a time when you need to hold up the mirror and decide if it’s worth it.

Over the years, I’ve gathered enough evidence to support the case that bad leadership may hurt you, the employee, in several ways, including:

Impacting your mental and physical well-being for the worst
Seriously diminishing your work productivity
Potentially damaging your and your company’s reputation
Hurting your career path and the trajectory of your professional goals

Clearly understanding the characteristics of a person exhibiting bad leadership is important. Here are seven to raise your awareness.

1. They ditch face-to-face communication.

In the digital age where communication apps like Slack, email, and texting are utilized for work productivity, bad leaders hide behind their tech and solely manage through digital interactions rather than the preferred human interaction to problem-solve issues that digital mediums of communication can’t effectively resolve. A problem that could have taken two minutes to fix in person now takes two hours or two days as workers try to interpret their managers’ words over a screen.

2. They display charisma (which later backfires).

Some of the most successful leaders in the world are known for their charisma. But charisma clouds people’s evaluations of how leaders actually perform, says Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It). The professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia University points out that charisma, when combined with narcissism and psychopathy, is a lethal combination. Furthermore, research has shown when followers have more information on a leader, the importance of charisma declines.

3. They can’t clearly communicate.

Employees have no idea what is really going on and no one knows the real truth of the current situation or what the future holds. This causes confusion, fear, and anxiety in the minds of workers.

4. They are control freaks.

A person with bad leadership micromanages to the last detail. The situation is overbearing and stifling because he or she wants control over decisions. He or she distrusts the team and doesn’t delegate; there’s no room for group discussion or input because the leadership style is autocratic. In turn, creativity or learning something new is absent under this dictatorship. The motto is: Just take your marching orders and report back.

5. They are never wrong.

Ever work with a manager who’s always right and you’re always wrong? A person with bad leadership skills has a hard time taking blame or ownership for things and will never admit to having made a mistake. He’s more concerned with preserving his reputation and saving face.

6. They are secretive.

Does your boss give you all the information you need? In the literature, this is one of the most predictive traits of people with bad leadership. It is reflective of someone who hoards or withholds information and employees often end up lost and confused.

7. They only look after themselves.

Bad leaders aren’t concerned with driving the company mission or aligning team goals to organizational objectives. It’s about their individual performance and getting that annual bonus. Bad leaders displaying this attitude are playing for the name on the back of the jersey and are only concerned about their accomplishments and how they look to their superiors.

Published on: Jul 10, 2019

Source: Inc.com

Surveying the Landscape of Small Business Tax Deductions