Equipment depreciation guidelines.

cowboydoc · Mar 19, 2002

Lazy K,
As I'm sure you know my business plan has alot of personal info. that I sure wouldn't want as public knowledge. We've got corporate stuff on their and personal id things, etc. I would sure be willing to fax you over the outline that I used though. Or you can order a book that has a number of examples in it from amazon. It's called Starting and Running Your Own Horse Business by Mary Ashby. It's got a great outline and step by step directions on how to write out your own business plan as well. If you have Q's while you're doing it I would sure help you with that as well. Hope you understand about not sending my personal one though.

TerryinMD · Mar 19, 2002

All -

Here is a site which may be able to help also... <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.planware.org/>Business Planning</A>

Terry

LazyK · Mar 19, 2002

Doc...thank you for your reponse. You gave me the lead on a horse-specific publication which I will review. A related outline and format is all I'm looking for, not anything proprietary. Sorry for mylack of precision in wording my inquiry. I appreciate your patience and thoughtfulness.

Anonymous Poster · Mar 23, 2002

I may be able to offer some help to a lot of you. I've worked in the tax area for the last 17 years. It would be impossible to answer all of your tax questions via posting, so I'm going to refer you to the IRS web page. Here you can download publications that will answer all of the questions I've seen posted. Here are a few to get you started:

Publication 334 - Discusses taxes for small businesses (including depreciation and the section 179 expense)
Publication 535 - Discusses business expenses that are deductible, including a discussion of the "hobby loss" rules.
Publication 583 - Discusses starting a business and record keeping
Publication 225 - This is a guide for farmers

The IRS web page is at http://www.irs.gov.

I don't blame most of you for wanting to do your own taxes, but there are cases where a good CPA can be invaluable and may actually save you money by finding deduction that you do not know about or by mitigating your audit risk by presenting deductions in an appropriate manner.

Hope the helps.

TerryinMD · Mar 23, 2002

Mark,

Shameless self-promotion.... /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Hey, thanks for the specifics about the IRS publications.

Terry

Anonymous Poster · Mar 25, 2002

Terry,

I'm sure you were just joking, but seriously, there was no self-promotion intended. I don't even work in public practice anymore. During the years when I did practice as a CPA I found many previously filed returns that, if prepared correctly, would have resulted in much lower taxes due. No offense intended, but the postings above are evidence that a lot of people are preparing their own returns without fully understanding the tax laws.

Thanks, Mark B.

TerryinMD · Mar 25, 2002

Mark,

I was just joking about the self-promotion..... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Yes, I do believe that most of the reponders do their own taxes. Seems like a lot of the TBNers are confident with their own work and are very self-relient, I being one of them.

You are probably very correct in missing some the deductables. However, I feel as though I reduced mine enough to feel comfortable with my choice. I've contemplated using an accountant. May choose that course next year to see how close we come. If this were a full time business, I would highly consider it. The business, in it's current state, is small enough for us to manage with COTS applications.

Terry