TAX TIPS FOR HOME-BASED AGENTS

1. Meals and entertainment
Home-based business owners can deduct 50% of expenses incurred while entertaining customers,

This is a great opportunity to build relationships with business travelers” by, for example, taking them out to dinner or to baseball games. Remember to keep and organize all receipts.

2. Home office
Starting this year, travel sellers who work at home can use the new Simple Safe Harbor program to take a home office deduction. This is one area in which no recordkeeping is necessary. Simply deduct $5 per square foot for up to 300 square feet of a dedicated home office.

3. Individual travel expenses
You already know that you can claim deductions for legitimate out-of-pocket travel expenses, including for fam trips. But you can also deduct travel expenses that are incurred on an individual trip, provided if it benefits your business.

If you take two weeks of the year for traveling and write a one-page business plan, it’s not far-fetched to deduct the costs of the trip, because it benefits your business. You must document the trip in advance and keep all receipts.

4. Education and conferences
Attend as many conferences as you can afford. All expenses [related to your attendance] are deductible, even dry cleaning and laundry services. You can even plan to attend two conferences back-to-back, or a conference and an individual trip, and deduct travel expenses for the time in between the two when you travel directly from one to the other. The key is determining whether taking these deductions saves you more money than flying home and flying out again a few days later.

5. Networking
While the Internet and social media have made it possible to network online, there’s nothing like face-to-face meetings. And any business expenses you incur while networking are 100% deductible,
So go ahead and rent booth space for that conference. Attend that local networking event. Drive that preferred client to the airport. It’s all part of your business development.

6. Retirement planning
As independent contractors, home-based travel agents don’t have access to company 401k retirement plans, You need to sit down with a tax professional and plan your retirement as much as you can,” “It will lower your tax liability. If you don’t have a retirement plan, you’re literally wasting money that the government is allowing you to put aside.

Learn how to become a home based travel agent and open your own online travel agency. www.HomeBasedTravelAgents.ORG