Okay, I have a question for those who are much smarter than me. I am trying to be good and categorize all my expenses for this year, but I am having difficulty in determining how to categorize things such as network cables, trash cans, surge protectors, etc that goes in my office.

I have thought maybe they should be categorized as office supplies, but they are not consumable, so that does not make sense. I also thought about putting them under depreciable equipment and then just taking it all this year since the cost was so little. I also thought about putting it as an other business expense. How should such items be categorized?

This is something that you should speak to your accountant about. If you're going to owe the IRS taxes this year, then he can also likely help you maximize your write-offs.

This is for my taxes next year. I just want to know how people would categorize such expenses or have categorized such expenses. I assume that everyone here has had similar expenses

I have a catch-all of "Office Expense", which covers everything from soda for the office fridge, snacks, cables, cheap electronics, decorative items, etc.

Well, it depends on the item to tell you the truth. For network cables and surge protectors, we would write these off as "Computer Equipment" with depreciation like the rest.

For trash cans, this would be Office Supplies. Consumable or not, it still goes in your office. If you bought a desk or chair or filing cabinet, what would you tag it as? For us, we don't distinguish furniture and office supplies, but you might answer that one differently.

Well, for furniture I categorize it as furniture under depreciable property. Depending on how much I profit at the end of the year, I will either depreciate the property or take a 197 deduction.

Jay Suds: Is your office in its own building or is your office in your home? My office is in my home and I wonder if I can legally write-off things like snacks (that I eat while working). I may get a mini-refridgerator in my home office and I think this will make writing off such expenses less fuzzy since I will only put food in it that I eat while working.

New Question: For those that are a really small business, do you you write-off your phone? I only have a cell phone (no land line). It is my understanding that technically, in this scenerio (since the phone is essentially personal with some business use), only additional phone expenses that relate to business use of the phone can be written off. For example, any roaming charges as the result of business activity on your cell phone or the additional cost of call waiting or voicemail. So, lets assume you have unlimited everything from cricket and you pay $45.00 a month, you could not write anything off as you are not incurring any additional expenses resulting from business activity (this assumes the phone is primarily for personal use and not the other way around).

I wonder if I can legally write-off things like snacks (that I eat while working)

I may not be "Jay Suds" :), but I figure I'd respond anyways. You can only write off food that you pay for to directly profit the business. That's the legal way of looking at it anyways.

For example, you wine and dine a client to gain a development contract. That's a tax write off, but only half of it (at least in Canada).

You basically only get to write off the meal eaten by your client, because as the government sees it - you have to eat regardless of work. Therefore, writing off snacks you eat while working, in my opinion, is pushing it.

I work from home, but have a whole floor of my house that's my office (finished attic). I've got an office fridge stocked with drinks and a basket of snacks. I do have clients over to my place for business meetings, and it would be extremely rude not to have any sort of refreshments to offer them. I do believe that it's ordinary and neccessary to provide your clients with basic refreshments during meetings. I personally believe my deductions related to these items is very justifyable. If the IRS really wants to get up my *** about $500/yr of food, let them.

New Question: For those that are a really small business, do you you write-off your phone? I only have a cell phone (no land line). It is my understanding that technically, in this scenerio (since the phone is essentially personal with some business use), only additional phone expenses that relate to business use of the phone can be written off. For example, any roaming charges as the result of business activity on your cell phone or the additional cost of call waiting or voicemail. So, lets assume you have unlimited everything from cricket and you pay $45.00 a month, you could not write anything off as you are not incurring any additional expenses resulting from business activity (this assumes the phone is primarily for personal use and not the other way around).

If your phone is for personal use, you are SOL. You could definately sign up for some call routing service, which would give your business a more professional touch, deduct the cost of the routing service, but not the actual phone itself.