The tax benefits of business investing

One of the good things about owning your own business is tax benefits that come from them, including the ability to write off certain business expenses and investments. This means that you can deduct the price of your investment or item from your overall taxable income, saving you money in the long run.

The tax benefits of business investing can end up saving you and your business a lot of money when it comes to writing off investments. However, there are a number of rules pertaining to tax write offs that must be adhered to; if you write off things that are not legitimate business expenses, then you run the risk of being audited by the IRS.

The following are some tips for what investments can be used for business write-offs.

What are investment expenses?
The first thing you must determine in order to reap tax benefits from your investments it to find out what legitimate investment expenses that you can write off are. These include:

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• Professional investment advice. The fees charged by your investment advisor can typically be written off.


• - Accounting or legal fees that have to do with your investment activities


• - Subscriptions to investment publications or sites


• - Investment interest expenses, such as margin interest on brokerage accounts. This can become quite complicated, and you should use IRS Form 4952 to determine what your deductible interest expense is.


• - The portion of internet charges used to follow and trade investments


• - Your home computer, if you have a home business and it is used for investing purposes


• - Your home office. As a general rule, however, you can only write off your home office if it is your principle place of business, if it is regularly used to meet with clients, or if it is a completely separate structure apart from the residence portion of your home. In other words, if you are using your "home office" to surf the web and check the stocks before going to your day job, you can't write it off in your taxes. Also, you shouldn't use your home office for investment management activities, as it will put you in violation of the "exclusively for business" rule.

The following are some investment expenses you will not be able to deduct as business write-offs:

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• Any costs that have to do with tax-exempt securities. Because they result in tax-free income, you will not be able to write them off.


• - Trading commissions can't be written off.


• - Travel costs associated with investment activities; this includes investment


• - Conventions, seminars, and meetings in addition to the fees associated with attending these activities.

If you are new to investing for your business or investing in general, you would be wise to hire the services of an accountant or investing professional who can help you determine the many tax benefits that come from business investing. Make sure the broker handles the type of investment you are interested in. This may seem fairly obvious, but many brokers specialize, and there are many different types of investments, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, offshore trading, and so forth). An investment advisor or accountant experienced in business investments can prove invaluable for you if you're new to investing and are unsure what sorts of investments and fees you can use as write-offs when you do your taxes.

These are just a few of the tax benefits that come from business investing and how you can save money from them.