Are You Ready? Personal Prep for Season

[Welpe]

I seem to run a small profit every year. I'm only deducting the basics such as registration fees, clinic fees, mileage, tolls, uniforms and equipment. I don't mess with meals, laundry, portions of my cell phone bill, internet, etc. I figure if I only do the basics I'm less likely to get audited and a few hundred dollars profit doesn't have much, if any, impact on my final tax bill.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by Welpe

I seem to run a small profit every year. I'm only deducting the basics such as registration fees, clinic fees, mileage, tolls, uniforms and equipment. I don't mess with meals, laundry, portions of my cell phone bill, internet, etc. I figure if I only do the basics I'm less likely to get audited and a few hundred dollars profit doesn't have much, if any, impact on my final tax bill.

Oh my dear Welpe.

Meals: Do you and your partners stop for dinner after your game and have a post-game discussion about the game? If you do, that meal if 50% deductible.

Laundry: To to a laundromat and see how much it costs you to keep your officiating uniforms clean. To keep that sharp crease in my officiating and umpiring pants, nothing is better that having them dry cleaned a couple of times a season, especially umpiring pants.

Thanks to cell phones my long distance phone bill is now zero, and my postage is next to nothing because of the internet.

If you and share ownership of your car with a bank (and aren't we all making car payments) the interest on the car loan is deductible (prorated of course based upon your officiating mileage and your total mileage). The IRS agent I officiated with told me about this deduction. The mileage deduction does not cover the interest paid on your car loan.

MTD, Sr.