Sunday, February 7, 2010

Deductionf for Emloyee Business Expense

Employee Business Expenses

Unreimbursed employee business expenses are deductible to the extent that they—plus other “miscellaneous deductions” exceed 2% of your Adjusted Gross Income. For example, if you made $ 50,000 and your employee business expenses were $ 1200, you would have $1200-$1000=$200.

To that you could add other miscellaneous deductions such as tax preparation fees and Investment expenses such as IRA fees paid to the custodian (but not if the custodian deducts them from your IRA account).

Some employee business expenses include:

· Car expense (actual expense or standard mileage allowance) The standard mileage allowance for 2009 is 55¢ per mile.

· Hotels and motels when away from home overnight.

· Meals while away from home overnight.

· Education expense related to present occupation

· Job search fees.

· Occupational license fees

· Home office expenses (several rules apply)

· Professional dues, union dues

· Protective clothing, safety equipment, uniforms required for job

· Tools and supplies used in your work.

The biggest problem with these are the 2% of Adj Gross income by which they must be reduced.

They must be required by the job and a number of rules apply which must be followed in determining the amount to be deducted. You can obtain more information from IRS Publication 17 and other information available at www.irs.gov

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