Cleaning Services And Other Tax Questions

[Nickel]

If I were to have someone come in to clean my home can I claim that on my taxes as a business expense?

Also, would having a home daycare mess up my taxes. Currently my husband claims single and zero and then at the end of the year we get 4-7k back. I know we should be investing that, etc, but we use that money to pay off bills, invest in stocks, and other things that we would not be able to do otherwise. So if I were to open a home daycare in august would I have to pay in at the end of the year or would my start up costs end up essentially canceling out any taxes "owed"? I mean between claiming bills, buying furniture and toys, licensing fees, insurance etc against only watching one or two children (i want to start out small) and only for half the year, I should be okay right?

Next year I plan on paying in quarterly so that it doesn't interfere with our return. (I know that's not the smartest way, but we are military, so it's nice to have that cash on hand for when we have to relocate. Military does not cover all the expenses incurred by far...)

thanks in advance. My husband just worries that he's paying all these taxes all year and I'm going to take them away. I had a home based writing business but I ended up losing money and therefore did not have taxes on things like advertising, a new computer, etc.. But this year I think I would actually end up making money so I'm a little nervous.

Advice is greatly appreciated thanks

[nothingwithoutjoy]

A percentage of cleaning can be written off. You can write off a lot more things than you'd think!

[Nickel]

oh great! Sounds like it would be really nice for someone to come in once a week and scrub everything down. It would be one less thing I'd have to worry about it!!!

Hmmm, I'm interested in what all those other things are. Guess I'll have to do more research

[Truly Scrumptious]

I've got a list of all the expenses you can write off and how to calculate time space %....it's from Tom Copeland's tax book. I can e-mail it to you if you like.

[nothingwithoutjoy]

Must get Tom Copeland's tax book.

[Nickel]

hahaha!!! I just realized I sent a pm to the wrong person!!! Sorry Lise! teeheehee. Please disregard!

[TomCopeland]

Taxes

If I were to have someone come in to clean my home can I claim that on my taxes as a business expense?

Also, would having a home daycare mess up my taxes. Currently my husband claims single and zero and then at the end of the year we get 4-7k back. I know we should be investing that, etc, but we use that money to pay off bills, invest in stocks, and other things that we would not be able to do otherwise. So if I were to open a home daycare in august would I have to pay in at the end of the year or would my start up costs end up essentially canceling out any taxes "owed"? I mean between claiming bills, buying furniture and toys, licensing fees, insurance etc against only watching one or two children (i want to start out small) and only for half the year, I should be okay right?

Next year I plan on paying in quarterly so that it doesn't interfere with our return. (I know that's not the smartest way, but we are military, so it's nice to have that cash on hand for when we have to relocate. Military does not cover all the expenses incurred by far...)

thanks in advance. My husband just worries that he's paying all these taxes all year and I'm going to take them away. I had a home based writing business but I ended up losing money and therefore did not have taxes on things like advertising, a new computer, etc.. But this year I think I would actually end up making money so I'm a little nervous.

Advice is greatly appreciated thanks

You can deduct the time-space % of the cost of the cleaning person.
Doing child care will not "mess up" your taxes. It's likely you will pay more in taxes. However, you will be making more money as a family, and thus have more money in your pockets after paying your taxes. Since you are getting such a large tax refund, you probably don't have to pay in an additional taxes, but you can always file quarterly to cover your taxes and get the same refund from your husband's income.
Remember, it's not how much you pay in taxes, it's how much money you have after paying taxes. When you earn money doing child care, you will always have more after paying taxes.