Submitted by: Kimberly Grant, Huntsville Real Estate Agent
Huntsville Real Estate Blog
Some thing I do for the first few months of the year is work with individuals and small business owners to prepare their tax returns. In fact, thats why I have been missing from my regular posting on Active Rain for the past couple of months. Often I am asked to look over previous tax returns and so often I see there are possible deductions and credits that are missed and go unclaimed. Today, I ran across an article entitled "5 Tax Deductions Most Realtors Miss." I thought it was right on target because I encounter the same thing not only with real estate agents but also other business owners. I tell people all the time that being a real estate agent is EXPENSIVE and you should make sure that you claim all the deductions to which you are entitled.
The author is an enrolled agent for the IRS and a certified financial planner. He outlined the five things that most Realtors miss from their tax deductions are as follows:
- Personal Property Purchases
- Travel expenses
- Entertainment Expenses
- Home Office Deduction
- Using Family Members on the Payroll
If you get a chance, check the article out for more information on these missed deductions. I completely agree with him because I see these things missed all the time. Everytime I bring up a lot of these items I always hear, "I didn't know that" or "Nobody ever told me that." These are things that you can utilize as tax deductions. However, when preparing the tax return if you have not kept track of these things during the year it makes it impossible to have accurate numbers. Most of these deductions need to be substantiated with receipts or log books. Even if you overlooked these deductions for preparing 2007 tax returns, we are still early in the year and you can begin keeping logs and records for next year.
Kimberly Grant
Realtor, Exit Leon Crawford Realty
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