H&R Block for 1099. Lease operator.

its been quite awhile since i worked for block, but they used to have some sort of additional fee that would make THEM responsible for paying the additional taxes, fees and interest. dont remember what its called, (gold something?) but if its still available id think about paying the extra money, as it sounds like your preparer wrote off a few things to which you are not entitled. maybe im too long "out of the loop" in tax preparation, but i dont see how you can write off the interest on your personal vehicle, and 20% of your house seems WAY high. auditor may have a field day with this return.

 

Yea, thats my weekend, preparing all my receipts. Ready to give it to my CPA next week. Would be nice if i can get a little coming back like the thread author.

 

I have a degree in accounting, I've done taxes for HR Block as well as independently and Autocar is correct. The portion of the home that is being claimed as a home office must be used solely for the purpose of the business. It can not be used for ANY other purpose.
IRS publication 587 specifically states the following two requirements must be met in order to claim the deduction: 1. "You must regularly use part of your home exclusively for conducting business. For example, if you use an extra bedroom to run your online business, you can take a home office deduction for the extra bedroom

2.You must show that you use your home as your principal place of business.

Most people may qualify for #2 but few qualify for #1. Unless they've changed their disclaimer about they will cover any associated fees and penalties due to an H&R Block error, you may still be on the hook if they audit you and it is determined you took the Home office deduction incorrectly because you didn't provide HR Block with accurate and truthful information about your situation.

 

Now you reveal that you are a 1099 employee and not even a business owner! Kiss that home office deduction good bye.
The size of a company and how many offices they have does not mean they are good. It only means they do a lot of business, maybe good, maybe bad. But, a lot of it.

 

I either missed it or forgot it. Sorry, my mistake. However, I will maintain my opinion that that 20% home office will not fly in an audit.

 

I would love for him to be dealing with the IRS monster I have.

 

Cell phone bill you can write off. You take the total number of calls versus the number of business calls. You come up with a % of business calls, you then take this % and times it by your cell phone bill. This is what you can write off.

150 total calls
100 personal calls
50 business calls

150/50 = .33

= 33%

Bill - $200

$200 x 33% = $66.

$66 is what you can write off for business.

If you have a computer, instead of keeping paper copies of everything, go to for example your cell phone website and download the bill as an PDF and store it on your computer by year/month. I for example had a spreadsheet.

total phone calls/personal phone calls/business phone calls/ %/ Total bill/ % of bill

Your phone bill is your proof... Look at the bill, if the number did not go to your house or your spouses cell phone, then it probably was a business call.

For my office I have a spreadsheet for each utility bill and other related home expenses. I already know my office is 8%, and yes it is a total office.

Any tax prep. will go with you to an Audit. If the Audit is not in the favor of the person, then the Tax Prep is not held accountable. You paid extra for this.

I would seriously look at all the things he wrote off and pray you don't get audited. I got audited for 2008 and had to prove I was OTR at the time.. 15 months later they said I was good. I hope you have copies of all your daily log sheets, if not you will be hard pressed to show you were OTR.

You might want to check how long this extra $ you paid is good for. I got audited 3 years after a filing. They might have a time limit. Just saying...