Business Expenses You can deduct business expenses on your income tax return. Theseare the current operating costs of running your business. To bedeductible, a business expense must be both ordinary and necessary. Anordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in yourfield of business, trade, or profession. A necessaryexpense is one that is helpful and appropriate for yourbusiness, trade, or profession. An expense does not have to beindispensable to be considered necessary. The following are brief explanations of some expenses that are ofinterest to people starting a business. There are many other expensesthat you may be able to deduct. See your form instructions andPublication 535, Business Expenses. Business Start-Up Costs Business start-up costs are the expenses you incur beforeyou actually begin business operations. Your business start-upcosts will depend on the type of business you are starting. They mayinclude advertising, travel, surveys, and training. These costs arecapital expenses. You usually recover costs for a particular asset (such as machineryor office equipment) through depreciation (discussed next). Otherstart-up costs can be recovered through amortization. This means youdeduct them in equal amounts over a period of 60 months or more. Ifyou do not choose to amortize these start-up costs, you generallycannot recover them until you sell or otherwise go out of business. cheap hotel in GoteborgFor more information on business start-up costs, see chapter 12 inPublication 535. Depreciation If property you acquire to use in your business has a useful lifelonger than one year, you generally cannot deduct the entire cost as abusiness expense in the year you acquire it. You must spread the costover more than one tax year and deduct part of it each year. Thismethod of deducting the cost of business property is calleddepreciation. Business property you must depreciate includes the following items. Office furniture. Buildings. Machinery and equipment. You can choose to deduct a limited amount of the cost of certaindepreciable property in the year you purchase it for use in yourbusiness. This deduction is known as the "section 179 deduction." For more information about depreciation and the section 179deduction, get Publication 946, How To Depreciate Property. Business Use of Your Home You may be able to deduct the expenses for the part of your homeyou use for business. The business use of your home must meetspecific requirements before you can deduct any of theseexpenses. Even then, your deduction may be limited. To qualify to claim expenses for the business use of your home, youmust meet the following tests. Your use of the business part of your home must be: Exclusive (however, see Exceptions to exclusive use,later), Regular, and ofertas hoteles ZandvoortFor your trade or business, and The business part of your home must be: Your principal place of business, A place where you meet or deal with clients or customers inthe normal course of your trade or business, or A separate structure (not attached to your home) you use inconnection with your trade or business. Exceptions to exclusive use.alberghi a BlackpoolYou do not have to meet the exclusive use test if you use part ofyour home: For the storage of inventory or product samples, or As a day-care facility. New rules for 1999.Beginning in 1999, your home office generally willqualify as your principal place of business if both of the followingtests are met. You use it exclusively and regularly for the administrativeor management activities of your trade or business. You have no other fixed location where you conductsubstantial administrative or management activities of your trade orbusiness. Which form do I file?If you file Schedule C (Form 1040), use Form 8829, Expensesfor Business Use of Your Home, to figure your deduction. Formore information about business use of your home, get Publication 587,Business Use of Your Home (Including Use by Day-CareProviders). Car and Truck Expenses If you use your car or truck in your business, you can deduct thecosts of operating and maintaining it. You generally can deduct eitheryour actual expenses or the standard mileage rate. Actual expenses.If you deduct actual expenses, you can deduct the cost of thefollowing items: Depreciation Lease fees Rental fees Garage rent Licenses Repairs Gas Oil Tires Insurance Parking fees Tolls If you use your vehicle for both business and personal purposes,you must divide your expenses between business and personal use. Example.You are the sole proprietor of a flower shop. You drive your van20,000 miles during the year. 16,000 miles were for delivering flowersto customers and 4,000 miles were for personal use. You can claim only80% (16,000 20,000) of the cost of operating your van as abusiness expense. Standard mileage rate.Instead of figuring actual expenses, you may be able to use thestandard mileage rate to figure the deductible costs of operating yourcar, van, pickup, or panel truck for business purposes. You can usethe standard mileage rate for a vehicle you own or lease. The standardmileage rate is a specified amount of money you can deduct for eachbusiness mile you drive. It is announced annually by the IRS. Tofigure your deduction, multiply your business miles by thestandard mileage rate for the year. Caution: Generally, if you choose to take the standard mileage rate, youcannot deduct actual expenses. However, you may be able todeduct business-related parking fees, tolls, interest on your carloan, and certain state and local taxes. Choosing the standard mileage rate.If you want to use the standard mileage rate for a car you own, youmust choose to use it in the first year the car is available for usein your business. In later years, you can choose to use the standardmileage rate or actual expenses. If you want to use the standard mileage rate for a car you lease,you must choose to use it for the entire lease period. For leases thatbegan on or before December 31, 1997, the standard mileage rate mustbe used for the entire portion of the lease period (includingrenewals) that is after that date. Additional information.For more information about the rules for claiming car and truckexpenses, see Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, andCar Expenses.