Any accountants out there?

If one was to build a garage on their own property, could one write off the cost of the building if one got a business license to do resto work?

 

Numero uno in King County is to get a building permit. Bring Tylenol. Generally any and all writeoffs fall under the same basic rules as home offices. The usage to keep Uncle Sam from your door, must be in this case, that the "garage" is for the sole purpose of conducting restoration business.

This is not a plug for King County or Donald Trump.

 

Thanks BB.

Sno co- no problem.

Don't think I could pull off sole use.

 

I'm not sure about the rules in the Land of the Free, but here in Godzone assuming the building was for business purposes, I can claim operating costs as expenses (so mortgage interest, council rates, insurance, maintenance, utilities etc) but not the capital cost of the building. Depending on the business activity, I could also claim depreciation on the building and chattels.

 

So maybe not capital cost but depreciation then?

The wife says it should be easy to say it's for business only.
A lot of people store things at their place of business.

 

It's like have an home office, when I was doing consulting, computers and CAD work, I had a dedicated office used 100% for business, then you can deduct what portion of the entire home is for the office. So if you had a 4000 sq ft house and you office was 500 sq ft, the you could deduct 1/8 of your house expenses, plus any expenses directly for the business. Better check on how your neighborhood is zoned and what types of business are allowed in a "Residential" area.

 

Famous last words before ya got a hole in your moccasins from standing in line. In Harris county it got so bad that Tacoma was buying ads on KIRO telling folks to come to Tacoma and get a permit in minutes. Same deal with vehicle transfers. The dealers pay dudes to do just that. Professional line standers..







The sole use is for an in home office. This one got abused a bunch and Uncle cracked down. The question is can you stand an audit by the County or the Feds?

 

You can do anything you want, until you get caught. I suggest getting with a local tax guy who has a little experience with dealing in IRS issues.

 

I find the best accountant to use is one who has just got out of jail, he knows the ropes, how to get around every loop hole and he won't get caught again