5 Lesser Known Expenses You Can Write Off On Your Taxes

When it comes to taxes, there are some things everyone knows they can write off in order to get more money back, like like exemptions for kids, mortgage interest and business expenses for example. However, there are a great deal of other expenses that can be written off to lower your tax liability too. While most have some rules involved, the majority of write-offs are pretty easy to remember and take advantage of.  As the Owner of EC Home Inspections in Fresno, CA in recent years I have found these to be very helpful.


Here are 5 not-so-well-known tax deductions.

Moving Expenses

If you move a very large distance, and can show that the move was for work, you can write off any moving expenses you acquire along the way. This includes moving vans, shipping boxes, movers and any travel related expenses too. For those of you who have made big moves, you know how helpful this can be, especially if the move was unexpected or inconvenient.
There’s a lot of rules for this one though, so to be sure to do your research so you’re sure where the lines are drawn between what is and isn’t a deductible expense.

Student Loan Interest

While any payments you make on your loans won’t help you out any when it comes to getting back more during tax season, you can include any interest accrued on your loans in your taxes.
Loan companies will usually give you a printout of your loan interest at the end of the year so you can include the printout on your taxes, but if they don’t it’s very simple to ask for one.

Charitable Donations

If you’re a generous person and donate money to charities then you already know that these donations can come off on your taxes. These usually work when they’re a certain percentage of your income. This is common knowledge. What a lot of people don’t know though, is that donating just about anything can be counted, not just cash.
For example, if you donate a great deal of used furniture, a used vehicle or clothing, then you’re entitled to claiming this on your taxes. Companies that take donations will provide you with the paperwork you can use to count these things towards your taxes during the coming season.
In my area there are charities which come by every few weeks in trucks to pick up donations you leave at your front doorstep. I’ve donated everything from old televisions to dishware to shoes. They leave a note where you can itemize the things you donated along with their estimated value. This document serves as your proof, in case of an audit, of what was donated.

Home Business

If you work from home or are self-employed, then you can write off things you need in order to complete your work. There’s a lot of different rules that come attached to this write-off, so be careful and really take into account what qualifies and what doesn’t.
You don’t need to have an official company that’s registered and have employees working for you in order to claim a deduction for business expenses. You just include a Schedule
C form, list yourself as a sole proprietor and list any expenses you had throughout the year. This could be anything from a new computer, advertising fees or anything else that you purchased for your work at home business.

Commuting Costs

When your job requires you to travel far distances, you can include these expenses on your taxes. This doesn’t count the commuting it takes to get to work, but instead any extra commuting you do during the day or for meetings and conferences.
For example, if you’re a field tech and you spend all day on the road going from site to site, the gas you spend and the maintenance on your car can be included. However, if your job offers you reimbursement for what you spend on commuting, you can’t claim anything. No double dipping allowed.






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