Save Taxes With a Qualified Home Office
When you work from home it makes sense to have a space in your home dedicated to work. It makes even more sense when you realize how much you can save on your taxes by having a qualified home office.
I have heard many people, even other professional tax preparers say that the IRS requirements for a home office are too strict, that calculating the taxes is too complicated, (especially when you sell your home), and that claiming a home office is like waving a red flag in front of an auditor.
The truth is, the requirements are strict, but not difficult to follow. All tax forms are too complicated, and, if you claim your home office properly you don’t need to worry about being audited.
The tax savings can be substantial. Not only do you get to deduct a portion of your rent or mortgage interest, you also get a deduction for repairs and maintenance, utilities, and office furniture. A sole proprietor using just 10% of the home as a qualified home office can potentially have thousands of dollars worth of deductions saving hundreds in taxes each year. A home office also qualifies as a place of business and will make more of your auto miles business miles. As an example, $5,000 in home office expenses will save a sole proprietor at least $1,250 in taxes.
To be a qualified home office your office must be used regularly for your business. It must also be used exclusively for business. This is where most people trip up. You have to think of your home office the same as any business office. This means that any use that is not business use disqualifies the home office. So you can’t have guests sleep in your office, and the kids can’t use the computer to do homework. There are two exceptions to the exclusive rule. Space used as a daycare does not need to be exclusive, and the same is for true for the storage of inventory or product samples.
Home office deductions are not limited to the self-employed. If you work for someone else you may also be able to claim a home office deduction. The home office must be for the convenience of the employer, and your employer must not pay you rent for your home office.
For more information on home office visit the IRS website and refer to Tax Topic 509, Business Use of Home, or Publication 587, Business Use of Your Home (Including Use by Day-Care Providers).
And just as a side note, if your tax preparer ever tells you that a tax deduction is “too complicated” you need to find another tax preparer!
Work From Home As A Book Indexer
Are you patient, analytical, well read, and you don’t mind working alone? Do you have an excellent grasp of language and pay good attention to detail? If so you might enjoy working as a Book Indexer.
To be honest, I had always assumed that the indexes in the backs of books were created by computer. I know that MS Word has an index function, although I have never used it. But it turns out, that computers are just not all that good at creating a useful index, and so that task falls to freelance indexers.
I first found out about freelance opportunities for book indexers while reading Freelance Sprout. From there I found even more information from the American Society for Indexing (ASI).
There is a low barrier of entry for indexing. No specific degrees or credentials are required to be an indexer. However, publishers will look to see if you have subject matter expertise for indexing a technical book or manual. You can learn indexing by taking courses offered by your local college, by taking a correspondence course offered by the US Department of Agriculture, or there are a number of self-paced course offered by ASI.
Once you gain clients and experience, you can earn decent money. This is definitely not a get rich quick scheme! Full time experienced indexers can earn up to $50,000 per year, working from home.
According to ASI, most indexers find work by sending letters and resumes to publishers. Experienced indexers find most of their work comes from networking and referrals from satisfied clients.
If you have good attention to detail, and can work with tight deadlines, indexing could be a good work from home opportunity. Learn more at Freelance Sprout and American Society for Indexing (ASI).
How I Made The Move
Well, as you can probably tell, I am no longer on Blogger. It just goes to show that where there is a will, there is a way. If you are interested, I am posting my How To Switch from Blogger to Wordpress post over on Ninja Success. (It really doesn’t fit with the them of this blog!) Lots of thanks go to John at RareVictorian.com. He is the one the had the “secret” to making it all work.
Freelance Writing Jobs
I just found a free forum that lists freelance writing jobs. I really liked the layout, as the forums are divided into high paying jobs, low paying jobs, free jobs. There were also sections for collaborations (when you want to work with other freelancers), writer and publisher ops (writers looking for publishers and vice versa), writers for speaking engagements, and freelancers seeking work.
One thing I found nice about this forum is that for the high paying/low paying jobs section, the posters are required to list the pay for the job. Great if you don’t want to waste your time applying for very low paying jobs. There is also a section to list scams, I suggest you peruse this section before replying to any of the posts!
Today while I was perusing the forum, in the high paying jobs forum I found job listings for bloggers, legal writers, online gaming writers and travel guide writers. I found pay rates from $15 per post, to $20 per hour to $750 per day. Quite a spread!
The low paying jobs forum included jobs for e-book writers, quiz writers, and bloggers. Pay rates ranged from $10-$20 per post.
It is a moderate sized forum so there are a decent number of jobs listed, and not a huge amount of competition. If you are a decent writer you should be able to find a job here.
The forum is Online-Writing-Jobs.com.
Check it out and let me know how it works out for you. Did you get a job? Did you get scammed?
Help With Moving to Wordpress
Edit: I’ve done it! I still have a lot of work to do, but The Work From Home Pro is now on WordPress!
I am at the end of my rope! I would really like to move this blog to WordPress, but I can’t seem to get the WordPress import feature to work. I keep getting a timeout error while Google is authorizing. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I can find plenty of people with the same problem, but no solutions. I don’t want to end up moving this post by post! Please leave a comment if you have any ideas.
Thanks.
Entrecard
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