Thanks for catching that. I have made the changes to the article accordingly. That being said, the overall tax savings is not affected by this number.

The tax bracket range in question is 33950 – 82250 so any deduction will save you the full percentage of all deductions at the top of your tax bracket as long as it doesn’t take your income below 33950.

The one major mistake which I just caught is that the tax bracket is actually 25% which I wrote down as 28% from memory. I’m updating the calculations now. Still significant savings regardless.

Great blog though.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a FEIN or are using your own social, you can still take tax deductions as long as it is a part of your business. The best way to do it is to establish completely different bank accounts and keep separate books for your personal and professional expenses. Of course, if you are going to do that, you may as well get yourself an EIN. It literally takes a few minutes to do it online.

That’s true. Income taxes from a job are taxed at the highest rates. And, having a business is the best way to reduce taxes. It is pretty strange that there are people who don’t have their own business, when it is the most powerful way to reduce taxes.

Are you sure about your income statistics? I think the average American makes about $30,000.

The best book I have found about taxes is Lower Your Taxes – Big Time! by Botkin. Definitely worth getting. In the book I found strategies that my tax guy didn’t know about.

Also, it is important to have a great tax preparer help us make the most of our situation.

Thanks for an article that covered just what I was needing to know, as I have only been freelancing full-time for three months.

1. If you are traveling for a trade show, there’s no problem in expensing everything as long as it’s within the duration of the show.
2. The trip has to have a clear business purpose and trip’s primary purpose must be business.
3. Weekend stay overs are deductible if you fly.

That being said, the little nugget that I probably should have elaborated on was that my trip occurred during trade show time. My wife and I went for the trade show and decided to make a vacation out of it. In any case, details aside, taking tax deductions is one of those things that requires common sense. It all depends on your risk threshold. Your accountant should help you out in that respect.

I do personally think some of your write offs are exaggerated and not something you should encourage people to write off, such as vacations due to business meetings. Most of the rules that do exist for things like that and even for local vehicle use are pretty strict that it must be things strictly for your business or the time / distance traveled but be split % wise to consider the allowable claim. So, if you have 10 days of vacation and only 4 hours in meetings, you can only claim a VERY small portion of the trip costs. Otherwise, you are asking for trouble if (or when) you do get audited. I’d advise to be careful of your accountant as well, they make a recommendation, but if you are still ultimately responsible for what you claim, not them.