Tax season guide to small business expense deductions

Whether you love tax season or hate it, you can’t put off preparing and filing your return. One thing that can make the task more pleasant is maxing out all the various tax deductions your business qualifies for.

Claiming deductions can save your business money at tax time if it reduces your taxable income (and hopefully, your tax bill). But just what can you deduct?

This guide covers everything you need to know about writing off business expenses.

Defining deductible expenses

“Generally, all deductible expenses must be ‘ordinary and necessary’ to the business per the IRS,” says Kaylee Wold, a certified public accountant at ALL CPAs in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

• Ordinary expenses are common to your industry or business.
• Necessary expenses are ones that are helpful to or appropriate for your business.

The IRS doesn’t require an expense to be “indispensable” to meet the necessary standard. Uncle Sam also distinguishes deductible business expenses from these expenses:

• Expenses used to figure the cost of goods sold – such as raw materials, labor costs and factory overhead
• Capital expenses – including startup costs, business assets and improvements to the business
• Personal expenses – meaning living or family expenses

While you might be able to write any of these off elsewhere on your return, they wouldn’t technically qualify as deductible business expenses.

What’s deductible for businesses this year?

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made some changes to business deductions. This table highlights the most significant expenses you can deduct for the 2021 tax year:

Tax season 2021: Main deductible expenses

Other deductible expenses

Other deductible expenses include education expenses, rent, professional dues or subscription fees, office supplies, stamps and postage, professional licenses or regulatory fees and outplacement services for employees who are laid off.

There’s also a deduction for contributions to small business retirement plans, including:

• Simplified Employee Pension Plans (SEP IRA)
• Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE IRA)
• Individual 401(k) plans (these are reserved for sole proprietors or business owners whose only employee is their spouse)
• Traditional 401(k) plans

Tax deductions and retirement contributions

One thing to watch out for is how claiming other business deductions affects the amount you can save in a qualified retirement account. Small business retirement plans limit your contributions to a certain amount, based on your income.

“When you have a lower income you typically have lower taxes, but one of the benefits of having a higher income is that you can contribute more to a pension or retirement plan,” says Paul T. Joseph, a certified public accountant and founder of Joseph & Joseph Tax & Payroll in Williamston, Michigan. “Once you lower that income, you also lower the amount you can invest in a retirement plan.”

In other words, claiming more business expense deductions could mean paying less in taxes, but it could shrink your retirement contributions. That’s potentially the biggest downside with deducting expenses.

There may be another drawback if you plan to apply for a business loan or a personal loan, such as a mortgage. On paper, deductions can significantly reduce your business income, which might make you appear riskier to lenders.

Business expenses you can’t deduct

While there’s a lot you can deduct for your business, certain expenses are off-limits.

“Entertainment expenses are not deductible anymore,” says Wold, “even if the entertainment involves a relationship between a business and a client.”

If you previously wrote off club dues, sporting event tickets or concert tickets related to client outings, for example, that’s one tax break you won’t be able to claim moving forward.

“Additionally, there’s no longer a deduction for employer-provided transportation fringe benefits provided to employees,” says Wold, such as parking or public transit passes.

To round out the list, you can’t deduct these expenses either:

• Federal income tax payments
• Political campaign contributions or lobbying expenses
• Fines or punitive damages associated with a civil or criminal case

Claiming the 20% pass-through deduction

One important addition to the tax code is the 199A or qualified business income deduction for pass-through entities.

“Generally, the deduction is 20% of qualified business income before limitations,” says Wold. Qualified business income just means net business income after business deductions or losses are taken out. This deduction is available to pass-through entities, including s-corporations and partnerships, but there are two big limitations, says Wold.

“If a business performs services within certain IRS-specified industries, they generally can’t take the deduction,” she says.

If you run a service business in the health, law, accounting, actuarial, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services or brokerage services industries, you wouldn’t make the cut for this deduction. Businesses that do qualify may be limited on what they can deduct.

“The deduction can’t exceed the greater of either 50% of the company’s wages or 25% of those wages, plus 2.5% of the basis in the company’s tangible, depreciable property,” says Wold.

There’s an exception for single filers with taxable business income of $164,900 or less, and married couples with taxable income under $329,800. Those business owners would be able to take the full 20% deduction.

Using a rewards credit card to pay for deductible business spending

A business credit card can offer convenience in paying for business expenses, as well as miles, points or cash back on purchases.

“Paying for business expenses, including the purchase of equipment, inventory, charitable donations, etc. have the same treatment as if the business paid with cash or checks,” says Wold.

If you’re planning business spending for this year, consider these cards for covering deductible expenses:

Best credit cards for deductible expenses

Any interest expense you pay on the card wouldn’t be deductible until it’s added to the balance, says Wold. Just know how much interest you can deduct.

“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did impose some new limits on deducting business interest, primarily related to a new cap on deducting interest of 30% of adjusted gross income,” says Mark Luscombe, federal tax analyst at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. He notes that there’s an exemption from that limit for businesses with average annual gross receipts of $25 million or less.

One rule remains the same: “If it’s a personal purchase, there’s no deduction for the interest charge,” says Luscombe.

That’s important to take heed of if you use your business rewards card for both business and personal spending.

Pay close attention to record keeping

When paying for deductible business expenses, make sure you leave a paper trail.

“Documentation is the key to being able to deduct any expenses in the eyes of the IRS,” says Joseph. “Accordingly, business owners should painstakingly document the deductions they plan on taking on their returns.”

Using a credit card for business spending simplifies the process.

“By using a credit card to pay for these purchases, you have an immediate source of documentation that typically itemizes what each purchase is,” says Joseph. “There are certain credit cards that will combine and compile all the expenses by category on an annual basis and provide that report to you, which you can use to document your expenses.”

That can make deducting business expenses less stressful once tax season gets underway.