For a Synopsis of the Chapters click here

What a great time for running a home-based business! Advances in telecommunication and Internet technology have made working from home easier than ever before. On top of that, Congress has made the home office deduction rules less restrictive than at any time since 1976. You will learn from this revised and updated Fourth Edition of Taxes Made Easy for Your Home-Based Business how virtually any home-based business owner can qualify for important tax benefits. This guide will show you how to qualify for home-office deductions even if your home office is not your primary place of business.

Taxes Made Easy for Your Home-Based Business, 4th Edition, features all of the relevant new tax laws. It is the perfect nuts and bolts tax guide for self-employed professionals, side-line business owners, consultants, freelancers and employees who work from home. It is exhaustive, detailed, and easy to read. There is even a little humor thrown in.

Many taxpayers blindly trust a tax preparer, never knowing if they are truly paying the least tax possible. This book gives you the opportunity to determine that for yourself. You will learn how to plan your home-office activities for the coming years, and you will have the satisfaction of being intimately familiar with a significant aspect of your federal tax liability.

The Home Office Association of America calls JK Lasser's Taxes Made Easy for Your Home-Based Business "the best tax guide available for home-based business people." Paul and Sarah Edwards, America's foremost experts on home-based businesses, call it "a must for anyone who works from home and wants to do their own taxes, or understand what their preparer should be doing." And John Knowlton, Editor of Business@Home Magazine, calls it "a reassuringly simple guide to understanding your taxes when you work from home."

Each chapter contains endnote references to the text. They are filled with cites to Internal Revenue Code sections, court decisions, Treasury regulations and IRS rulings. These are the primary sources of authority for the rules of federal taxation (discussed in Chapter One). It is not necessary to read the endnotes as you study this book, but they are important to fully document the advice and suggestions offered. If your deductions are ever challenged by the IRS you will be able to back them up with the appropriate legal authority.

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Here's a rundown of each chapter:

Chapter One provides an overview of the structure of our federal income tax system, and generally describes the role of Congress, the IRS and the courts. This puts into perspective your rights as a taxpayer. Your options in responding to an audit are explained, from the administrative appeals process to litigation in court. Unlike most tax guides, authoritative support for tax planning suggestions in the form of cites to Code sections, rulings and court cases are provided throughout the book. Chapter One tells you how, as a tax novice, you can do your own tax research by explaining where to find the actual documents to read. It also tells you where tax information can be found on the Internet.

Chapter Two describes in detail what the IRS and the courts consider to be a trade or business. This is important because you can deduct home-business expenses only if you have a trade or business. The difference between an investment activity and a business is explained, as is the difference between a business and a hobby. The general rules for identifying deductible business expenses are also explained.

Chapter Three talks about your choices for a business entity if you are self-employed. Your business could be organized as a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a limited liability company, a limited liability partnership, a regular C corporation or an S corporation. The general features of each business form are explained, along with their advantages and disadvantages for tax purposes.

Chapter Four describes your choices of accounting methods and taxable years. Determining the proper year to report an item of income or a deduction is sometimes a little tricky. Therefore, the general requirements for when to report income and deductions under the cash and accrual methods are discussed.

Chapters Five and Six offer the most detailed explanation you will find of how home-office deductions are treated. There are limitations on these deductions with which you must comply. Chapter Five tells you what expenses are subject to the limitations, how the limitations work, and how to avoid them. Then in Chapter Six you are guided line-by-line through Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home. Chapter Six is designed as a reference tool for actually filling out the form.

Chapter Seven gives you the rules for deducting travel and local transportation expenses. Car expenses can be pretty confusing, so most of the chapter is devoted to them.

Chapter Eight tells you about other common business deductions that are not limited by the home-office deduction rules. Depreciation of your business property is another area that is confusing, so this chapter takes you through the rules in detail. Other costs discussed include software, books, subscriptions, telephone services, insurance, wages for office workers and retirement plans.

Chapter Nine tells you about Self-Employment tax, your obligation to make estimated tax payments if you are self-employed, and employment taxes if you have employees. It also describes how to keep your annual estimated tax payments to a minimum while avoiding the underpayment penalty.

Chapter Ten describes in detail how claiming home-office deductions affects the reporting of the sale of your home. You are taken step-by-step through the new rules for sales of a personal residence.

Chapter Eleven tells you about the records you should keep and how long you should keep them. Read this chapter before you throw any of that stuff away.

Chapter Twelve contains a comprehensive example of how to fill out Schedule C, Profit or Loss From Business, Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home, Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization, and Schedule SE, Self-Employment Tax. You are then shown how to determine your estimated tax payments for the following year.

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