Frugal Home Business tips
John Wildon
the yellow pages (the phone company insists you pay the business rate
when you are in the yellow pages and in most even local calls have a
charge from business phones/). Only use this line for incoming calls.
Have the second line as your home phone and use this for all outgoing calls.
Subscribe to service that lets you send and receive faxes via email
saving the cost of a third line.
Unless your home office occupies substantial space in your house and
is used for business only do not bother trying the home office
deduction, it sends an alert to the IRS.
Remember, you can deduct things without documentation if it is
impossible to get a receipt. Parking lot that gives no receipts can be
reported even if you parked on the street and fed 50 cents in a meter.
Have two business appointments in the same area that is a 100 mile
round trip. Mark it as two trips in your log. If and when the IRS
audits you it will be at least a year down the road,most likely longer.
Tell them one appointment had to be rescheduled due to a conflict at one
of the companies.
Do not claim some deductions. If you are audited it is a two way
street and you can decide you now want those deductions. Go to Vegas for
a trade show, do not deduct it but hold it as a weapon.
3
George Grapman
> Get two landlines. Use one as the listed number for your business in
> the yellow pages (the phone company insists you pay the business rate
> when you are in the yellow pages and in most even local calls have a
> charge from business phones/). Only use this line for incoming calls.
> Have the second line as your home phone and use this for all outgoing calls.
I work at home and have an unlimited calling plan on my main phone.
When I upgraded to DSL the potential savings onstand alone DSL was so
small that I kept the extra line and use it for my fax.
I use my cell as a call back number and have that number on any
printed material . My main land line has caller ID,call waiting and
three way. Friends know that if ,after 4 rings, they do not me or my
machine it means I am on the phone but know that the called. I also
have the privacy feature that prevents most blocked numbers from
calling me. Every so often I see "private number". I never answer and
they rarely leave a message so I know it is a telemarketer.