Cellphones have become as important to business as a land line, making them a genuine, tax-deductible business expense. However, because cellphones are intricately linked to our personal lives for most of us, the IRS scrutinizes this deduction closely to ensure that personal electronics aren’t claimed as a business expenditure.
Your cellphone as a small business deduction
You can claim the commercial usage of your phone as a tax deduction if you’re self-employed and use your mobile for business. You might properly deduct 30% of your phone cost if you spend 30% of your time on the phone on business. Writer Kristin Edelhauser of “Entrepreneur” magazine suggests acquiring an itemized phone bill so you may track your company and personal usage and justify your deduction to the IRS. You might also get a second phone number and use it solely for business purposes.
Deductions for employees
Even if you work for someone as an employee, you may be required to use your personal smartphone for business purposes for tax years prior to 2018. If you itemize your deductions, the IRS permits you to claim depreciation on your phone as a “unreimbursed business expense” if you use it for work on a regular basis and it’s a typical, accepted business practice.
Unreimbursed business expenses that total more than 2% of your adjusted gross income can be deducted. Professional association dues, legal costs, and other expenses indicated in IRS Publication 529 are included in this category.
These and other unreimbursed employee expenses are no longer deductible as of 2018.
Cellphone depreciation
According to Schneider Downs, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 affects the way you compute cellphone depreciation. If you used your cellphone for business less than 50% of the time, you could only depreciate it on a straight-line 10-year depreciation schedule under the prior regulations. However, the law now permits you to write off depreciationthe reduction in value caused by wear and tearover a seven-year period, as well as making bonus depreciation easier to claim.
Your cellphone as fringe benefit
If your company provides you with a cellphone as part of your job, your taxable income could increase. According to Schneider Downs, using your cellphone for personal calls even significantly counts as a fringe benefit that must be factored into your gross compensation.
If you can show that you use a personal cellphone during business hours and make all of your personal calls on it, the IRS may find that the business phone is used solely for business purposes, in which case your income will not be affected.
Is it possible to deduct my phone expense from my taxes?
When your cell phone is used solely for business, you may be eligible for a cell phone tax deduction. There is no specific IRS cell phone deduction for self-employed individuals. You can, however, deduct any additional business expenses you incur.
The normal monthly expense of using a personal cell phone for business will not qualify as a deduction. To deduct the expense, you must determine the cell phone’s business-use percentage on a month-by-month basis.
Also, your cell phone cannot be used as your primary home phone. These kinds of extra cell phone costs are considered business expenses:
What percentage of your Internet bill may you claim as a tax deduction?
You must file Form 2106, Employee-Related Expenses, to deduct Internet expenses as an employee. Your deduction is limited to the amount that exceeds 2% of your adjusted gross income, according to the IRS. As a result, if you make $50,000, you can only deduct expenses that total more than $1,000. If you are self-employed or own a business, you can deduct all of your business-related Internet expenses from your gross income.
Can I use my phone bill as a deduction on my tax return in Canada?
Stationery, stamps, toner, and ink cartridges are examples of supplies. Briefcases and calculators are not included in the supplies.
Cell phone
If all of the following conditions are met, you can deduct a portion of a basic cell phone service plan:
- On a reasonable basis, the plan’s cost has been split between business and personal use.
Most employees are unable to deduct the cost of purchasing or leasing a cell phone. Commissioned employees, on the other hand, may be able to deduct the cost of leasing a cell phone if the charges are related to earning commission revenue.
Work-space-in-the-home expenses
You can deduct expenses paid in 2021 for the use of a work area in your house for job purposes as long as the expenses were directly related to your work and your employer has not compensated or will not pay you. One of the following requirements must also be met:
- You solely use the work space to earn money from your job. You must also apply it on a regular and consistent basis while meeting clients, customers, or other people as part of your job responsibilities.
Keep a copy of your employer’s completed and signed Form T2200S, or Form T2200, with your records.
You can deduct the expenditures of energy, heating, water, the utilities portion of your condominium fees, home internet connection fees, and maintenance that are related to your work area. Mortgage interest, principal mortgage payments, and capital cost allowance, on the other hand, are not deductible.
Use a suitable foundation, such as the area of the work space divided by the entire finished area, to compute the percentage of work-space-in-the-home expenses you can deduct (including hallways, bathrooms, kitchens, etc.). It’s possible that using a percentage of maintenance costs isn’t the best approach. You cannot deduct any part of the expenses you paid (such as cleaning products or paint) if they were to maintain a component of the house that was not used as a work space. If the expenses you paid were only for the upkeep of your work area, you may be eligible to deduct all or most of them.
If your work space is in a rented house or apartment where you live, deduct the proportion of the rent as well as any work-related maintenance charges.
After all other job expenditures have been deducted, the amount you can deduct for work-space-in-the-home expenses is restricted to the amount of employment revenue left. This means you can’t use spending for work-space in your house to produce or exacerbate a loss from employment.
Work-space-in-the-home expenses can only be deducted from the revenue to which the expenses are related, not from any other income.
If you can’t deduct all of your work-space-in-the-home expenditures in a given year, you can carry them forward. As long as you record income from the same employer, you can deduct these expenses the following year. Carrying forward work-space-in-the-home expenses, on the other hand, cannot raise or decrease your income from employment.
Calculating your work-space-in-the-home expenses
You’ll need to compute your employment-use % if you utilize the thorough technique.
- the amount of hours you labor in the space (this does not apply if you are using a designated space)
How much of my phone bill am I able to deduct for work?
You can claim a percentage of the purchase price if you bought a phone outright and use it part-time for business. If the phone cost less than $300, you can claim a one-time tax deduction for the business percentage of the cost. Alternatively, if the phone cost more than $300, you can claim the depreciation of the phone during its lifetime, which the ATO defines as two years from the date of purchase. (Don’t worry about doing the math yourself! It can be calculated for you by one of our qualified accountants).
Is it possible for me to deduct the cost of my phone?
If you’re a director of a limited company, you may be able to deduct the cost of your mobile phone bills as a business expense if each Director/Employee is given only one phone.
HMRC considers the whole cost of your mobile phone bills to be a tax-deductible expense if the contract is held in the limited company’s name and payments are made directly from the company’s bank account. This is true whether the phone is used for personal or business purposes.
There are no personal tax obligations, such as completing a P11D every year or paying personal tax on the cell phone benefit.
If you’re a solo trader or a business partner, you have two options for billing mobile phone fees to your company.
You can have a business phone that is only used for business purposes, allowing you to claim all of the expenditures associated with the phone through your company (including VAT if you’re VAT registered). You can even claim a percentage of your mobile phone charges if you already have a personal phone that you want to use for work.
To do so, you’ll need to figure out how to divide your bills (including VAT) between business and personal use. There is no one-size-fits-all method for calculating this, but it should be reasonable. Take a sample of mobile phone bills and figure out what percentage of the calls are related to personal use. The percentage is then deducted from the total amount spent. HMRC is unlikely to challenge your figures if your method is fair and you examine the percentage on a frequent basis.
After removing their personal usage percentage, VAT-registered sole merchants can claim back the VAT.
Please contact us if you have any issues about mobile phone expenses, and we would be pleased to assist you!
Is a phone bill considered a utility bill?
Is a telephone bill considered a utility bill? Phone bills are commonly classified as utility bills. However, this only applies to landlines, not mobile phones. Telephone companies’ invoices are utility bills, and they, like energy suppliers, provide a service to the general public.
How do I figure out how much my home office costs?
The home office deduction can be claimed in two ways: the simplified technique and the normal approach.
The simplified option is a quick and simple approach to figure out how much you can deduct for your home office. Simply multiply the entire square footage of your office by $5 to calculate your deduction. The simple technique allows you to claim up to $1,500 (300 square feet) in deductions from your taxable income.
You can claim a tax deduction depending on the percentage of your home office square footage and home-related expenses if you use the standard method. You can claim home-related expenses including rent, mortgage interest, utilities, insurance, repairs, and other costs with this choice.
To calculate your deductible percentage using the normal approach, divide your home office square footage by the entire square footage of your home. To calculate your home office deduction, multiply your percentage by the sum of your house’s total permitted expenses.
If your home office is 200 square feet and your house is 1,000 square feet, you can deduct 20% of your permitted expenses (200/1,000 = 0.20). The regular technique of deduction, unlike the simple method, has no upper limit on how much you can claim.
What are the expenses that I can deduct if I work from home?
If you have a home office that is solely dedicated to your business as a self-employed individual, you may be able to claim a tax deduction for it on your return.
You must use a portion of your home or a separate structure on your property as a primary place of business to claim a home office as a business cost. This can involve meeting clients or customers, conducting business, keeping merchandise, using it as a daycare center, or any other work-related activity.
You have two options for claiming the home office deduction on your taxes if you are eligible: the simplified technique or the direct method.
The simplified method is exactly that: straightforward. You can calculate your home office deduction on your tax return by deducting $5 per square foot of your office, up to $300 square feet or $1,500. The direct method, on the other hand, is more time-consuming but could result in a larger deduction.
Tax Tip 4: Consider taking the direct method if it provides a bigger deduction.
The direct technique is another way to claim the home office deduction. This entails keeping track of all of your home office expenses, as well as any costs associated with repairs and maintenance. In addition, depending on the proportion of the room to the rest of your home, you may be able to deduct a percentage of other expenses.
For example, if your home office accounts for 10% of the total square footage of your home, you can deduct up to 10% of your housing costs, including utilities, mortgage interest or rent, and insurance.
Your deduction will likely vary depending on which method you select and the percentage of your home office’s square footage to your entire home’s square footage and your housing expenditure.
You must account for depreciation of a portion of the house if you own it when utilizing the direct method. When you use the simple approach to claim the home office tax deduction, you won’t have to worry about calculating this.
Tax Tip 5: Each year you can switch between the simplified and direct method to take the biggest tax deduction.
You may need to calculate your deduction using both the direct and simplified techniques to see which one comes out ahead for your taxes in order to earn the maximum deduction possible.
There’s no need to swap from one way to the other year after year. Every year, you can choose the technique that gives you the biggest tax break.
How do you calculate the home office deduction as a self-employed person?
The simplified method makes calculating the home office deduction simple. You double the square footage of your home office that is only used for your self-employed business by $5 per square foot, up to a maximum of $1,500 per year.
In comparison, the direct route takes more effort on your behalf during the year and while preparing your return. However, you may be able to save even more money on your taxes.
The direct method calculates the home office tax deduction by dividing the square footage of your home office by the total square footage of your home.
Calculate the percentage of your home that is allocated to your home office by multiplying the square footage of your home office by the square footage of your whole living area. This percentage is then applied to your personal costs to see how much could be considered a business expense.
Rent, mortgage interest, utilities, insurance, and repairs are all eligible for a percentage deduction. For a residence that you own, depreciation is also a permitted expense.
If your home is 1,000 square feet and your office is 250 square feet, you can deduct 25% of your permitted expenses (250/1,000 = 0.25). You might claim up to $2,500 in deductions if you had $10,000 in qualified home-related expenses.
The direct technique has no maximum deduction limit, which makes it more appealing than the simplified method in some cases. Consider calculating both techniques to help you decide which is best for your situation.
Can I use the same space for my W-2 job and side gig and still claim the deduction?
You won’t be able to claim your home office as a tax deduction if you utilize it for both your W-2 employment and your side hustles.
The IRS permits you to deduct expenses for having a separate place where you operate your self-employed business on a regular and exclusive basis. This is true whether you live in a house, an apartment, a condo, a mobile home, a boat, or a barn, garage, or workshop.
Because the facility isn’t utilized purely for your self-employment, the IRS won’t let you claim a deduction for it on your tax return if you also use it as a W-2 employee.
If you have separate workspaces for your employee and self-employment jobs, the qualified expenses for your self-employment workspace may still be deductible even if the expenses for your employee workspace aren’t.
The availability of deductions for employees who work from home has changed as a result of tax reform. You can only claim self-employed costs at this time.
The best of both work worlds:
Employees who need to pay for business expenditures while working from home might claim compensation from their employer. As long as your employer offers an accountable plan, reimbursements are usually tax-free. This means you must file an expense report or another method of accounting for your expenditures. Receiving reimbursement for an item is almost always preferable than seeking a tax deduction for the same expense.
Is it possible to deduct expenses for working from home?
If you are a sole trader, the requirements are different; you can either claim simplified self-employed expenses or calculate your actual costs by estimating the percentage of personal and commercial use for your house, such as the proportion of utility bill charges incurred by your firm. A simplified expenditures checker is available on the government’s website, www.gov.uk, to assist you in determining which option is best for you.
For the self-employed, simplified costs means claiming a set rate for allowed expenses depending on the amount of hours you work from home each month. To be eligible, you must work a minimum of 25 hours per month from home. Remember that if you use simplified expenditures, you can claim the business component of your telephone and internet charges, which are not included in the flat rate allowance.
How much can I claim if I don’t have any receipts?
If the entire amount of your claimed expenses exceeds $300, you must submit written documentation in order to be eligible for a tax deduction.
If the total amount of your claimed expenses is less than $300, you are free from producing receipts; nonetheless, you must explain how you arrived at this figure.
If the expense was incurred within Australia, even if it was in another language, the documentation is written in English.
A receipt provided by the vendor of the goods or services in question must include the following information: