Tax Time
 

I am planning on doing my own taxes this year using turbotax. would any one know which product will work for an official? Deluxe, Premier or Home and Business?

They'll all work.

AS long as the product has a schedule C (and SE), you're all set.

Thanks a lot.

I have used turbotax for my taxes in recent years.

It can get complicated when doing taxes as an official. I know some officials who simply claim the money earned as additional income, and pay the taxes on it. I know others (myself included) who claim their officiating income as a business and as a result pay SE taxes (but also have a much easier time claiming deductions).

Tax Mileage Deduction Questions
 

I am using TaxAct for my taxes.

I am asked to input the following:

Business miles driven during 2015:

Commuting miles (not deductible):

Other personal miles (not deductible):

I drove about 400 extra miles for games. I drove about 10,000 miles for my 8-5 job and an extra 8,000 miles for other stuff.

On the slides that follow, I get asked questions about how much money I paid in interest.

Should I put "0" for commuting miles and "18,000" for other personal miles. Or, should I put "10,000" for commuting miles and "8,000" for personal miles?

I'm just trying to do it right; I'm not trying to figure out how to pay the least taxes.

Thanks!

Thanks to all who contributed to the old threads. I was reading through the old threads and came across this link:

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p46...blink100033930

What I am now planning to do is the following:

Weekdays without games: Home -> Work -> Home = Personal Miles

Weekends with games: Home -> Gym -> Home = Commuting Miles

Weekdays with games: Home -> Work = Commuting Miles
Work -> Gym = Business Miles
Gym -> Home = Commuting Miles

Does that make sense?

Another Questions: I got paid in March 2015 for games worked from Dec 2014 to March 2015. I got paid in Nov 2015 for games worked from March 2015 to Oct 2015. Should I deduct miles from Dec 2014 through Nov 2015 (I think so) or from Jan 2015 though Dec 2015?

This is why I have somebody to do my taxes. :)

No, it does not make sense.

home -> work -> home is commuting miles.

home ->run errands (go on vacation, gop out to dinner, etc) are personal miles

Deduct the miles in the year they were driven.

Add the income in the year it was received.

Thanks!

How should I report miles and tolls driven for camps?

I went from home --> work --> camp on Friday

I returned camp -->home on Sunday

IANATP (I am not a tax professional).

Unless you are able to deduct home office expenses, I believe the IRS would tell you that you can only deduct the mileage and tolls from work to camp in that situation.

But, since I assume you rested somewhere between Friday and Sunday, you should be able to deduct your meals and lodging (or use the per diem amount).

Thanks Altor!

My understanding is different and it has nothing to do with a home office. That said, I let my tax person worry about it.

I, too, am not a tax professional, but I would deduct thee entire home-work-camp-home mileage, less whatever your normal commute is. (So, if you normally drive to work, and that's 20 miles round trip, and the entire mileage is 150 miles, then deduct 130 miles).

I try to achieve both of these things.

I believe any miles done for the purposes of working as an independent contractor are deductible as business miles.

Therefore this is how I would handle these.

Home-Work-Home - Commuting miles

Home-work-Officiate-Home - You can deduct the miles in excess of the miles driven home-work-home.

Home-officiate-home - Business miles, all are deductible.

For example if you drive 20 miles one way to work and home, your have 40 commuting miles. If you drive home-work-officiate-home and the total trip is 60 miles, 40 miles of that trip are non-deductible as commuting miles while 20 miles are considered to be business miles.

Now, as for the camps, or multiday events.

Home-work-camp-hotel-camp-hotel-camp-home (Friday evening-Saturday-Sunday) In this case the similar rules apply. You can deduct the miles for the trip less the commuting miles from home to work and back home.



I know personally I always try to drive home (or at least past my house) between work and officiating therefore all of the miles are driven for business purposes. That isn't always possible, but it generally is.

To count the miles from home does not require you to have a home office by tax standards set up in your home (those are VERY STRICT). It only requires your home to be the address that you base your business out of, and when travelling will generally leave from (the leave from requirement is to prevent you from having a small "office" 200 miles away and claiming that as your leaving location for business purposes.

This is how it was explained to me by a fellow official who also happens to be a CPA owning his own firm.


For keeping track of my miles I enter everything into a spreadsheet. My tax time gets complicated because I do multiple businesses (officiating, mystery shopping, and a supply company) based from my home, plus I also work as a teacher two days a week and a substitute teacher 3 days per week.

Hmm...I think I'd reconsider using that CPA, or at least clarifying if that's really what he said.

The key to understanding deductibility of officiating expenses is understanding that the schools/locations at which you officiate are almost assuredly temporary work locations, distinct from your regular job. It doesn't matter where you consider the home of your officiating business, the key elements are your primary residence and whether your regular job is in another location.

If you have a regular place of employment outside the home, then any travel to a temporary work location (which isn't the same as a second job at another, fixed and regular location) between either work or home is deductible. Training and camps, being business expenses and also not a regular first or second job, would likely qualify as well. You don't have to do these tortured "in excess of" calculations.

If you work at home, then you're out of luck on this one - travel even to temp work locations is only deductible if it's outside your metro area.

Here is a handy chart from the IRS (yes, they're good for something) that pretty clearly lays it out:

https://www.irs.gov/publications/images/11081l02.gif

And the underlying publication:

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p46...link1000136362

Look up the definition of job and employee vs independent contractor. This is where things get murky.

Not as it applies to this section or category. It absolutely makes a difference in other areas, but not the deductibility of travel expenses.