Overhaulin'

Business Expense vs Business Writeoff Expense?

I work fulltime and have a side business S Corp which doesn't do much but has income enough to pay for a leased business car. Setup 1: I do not writeoff my home office. Ques 1: If I feel like buying a big screen in my living room since I work from my laptop sometimes in front of the tv can this be a Busines Expense AND a Business Writeoff? Setup 2: This S Corp has money that I "loaned" it for starting up. Ques 2: let's say I want to hire some gardener to fix it my yard. Obviosly this cannot be a Business Writeoff, BUT can it be a business expense? so the end all question: Can I basically buy anything I want from my business account, but only writeoff the legit things on my taxes but show them as business costs?

Public Comments

1. You just can't have your cake and eat it, too. Setup 1, Question 1: If you want to take the office in home expense, the area used must be used regularly and exclusively for business reasons. Since you're discussing using your living room as your "office," no dice. Also, there are IRS publications that thoroughly explain the details of using the office in home expense. Setup 2, Question 2: I think what you need here is a clarification of ideas and principles of accounting. First, a business writeoff and business expense are one and the same. A writeoff, as you put it, is usually considered to be a Section 179 expense, which is an election to forego depreciation on an asset and count all or part of the total cost for that asset as an expense in the current year. A business expense is generally considered to be a cost for a business-related item. Now, the other thing about these expenses is that they are defined in the Tax Code. It isn't something we as tax and bookkeeping specialists just "classify" an item as being. In other words, a rose is only a rose if the IRS says it's a rose. You can purchase anything from a business account, but whether it is a legitimate business expense is determined by its use. I suggest you pull funds you want to use for personal items out of your business account and then use them however you want. Yes, it's all your money, but it's easier to account for an "Owner's Draw" from your liquid assets than to figure out what is personal and what is business.