Source: ljubaphoto / Getty
Your CPA does his best to catch all of your possible deductions, but he doesn’t know your life. He doesn’t know every single thing you did this year. He wasn’t there, holding your hand, documenting your travels and life events and changes and struggles. He will do his best to ask you detailed questions in order to draw out all of the information he needs to get you those deductions, but he may miss something. Plus, you always have to look out for yourself. Even if you’re paying a professional to do that for you, never lean back and close your eyes to the process. That’s your money on the line, and missing even small deductions, year after year, can mean thousands of dollars you hand over, that you didn’t need to.
You also need to remember that the nature of the professional’s life is changing. The way people conduct business is different now. Workplace culture has changed. Offices have changed. You have these community, rent-by-the week or month or day spaces like WeWork and Spaces. You have social media ads. Meanwhile, your CPA may not be up to speed on these trends. If your CPA is from an older generation, or has simply conducted his business the same way for a long time, he may be in the dark about some professional trends that affect your tax deductions.
So often, we forget just how much we spent to make money in a year. It isn’t always as simple or obvious as paying for staplers or your assistant’s salary. There are so many expenses—big and small—that we hand over our hard-earned cash for, just so that we can go out there and work hard to earn more cash. But our lives are busy, so we forget about these. Here are tax deductions you can’t afford to forget.
Source: ferrantraite / Getty
Your CPA’s fee
The very fee you pay your CPA to do your taxes is tax-deductible—at least part of it is. Hey, you spend money so that the IRS can get their money, and so you can get yours. Your CPA’s fee is essentially the money you spend to make the money of your tax refund (if you’re lucky enough to get one).
