I Need To Claim More

[lovemykidstoo]

Track meal counts on attendance sheets is all you need to do. Any other method that shows the name of the child and the type and number of meals and snacks served every day will work.

On my yearly statement that's on KidKare, it shows how many breakfast, lunch and snacks. All of my kids are here the entire day. Can I go by that KidKare statement then if my attendance book shows that they were here all day? There's not a spot on the Forms Facts and Figures to put anymore info other than time in, time out, total hours, amt due and amt paid

[lovemykidstoo]

You or your husband can't deduct any portion of the first phone line into your home. You can deduct part of a second line as can your husband.

We have a landline that is Magic Jack, so I only pay less than $50 a year for it. Then we have the cell phone for me, my husband and 2 kids. That normally is $350 a month. He has a carpet cleaning business and he normally claims a portion of the cell phone bill. Are you saying I can claim a portion of it too?

[lovemykidstoo]

The average number of hours providers care for children is 11 hours a day. That is equal to 33% of the year. The average number of hours providers conduct business activities in their home after children are gone is about 13 hours a week. That is equal to 8% of the year. That's an average time percent of 41%. I haven't seen studies on the average space percent. I'd guess that an average time-space % would be 30-35. However, I've seen them as high as 98%! Don't worry about averages. Instead, keep records and claim whatever it is for you.

I have kids 5 days a week, 10 hours a day. Actually 10 hours and 10 minutes a day . When you talk about the average space percent, is that how much of my house that is used for daycare? I have a 4 bedroom ranch and the kids utilize every room except my small bathroom that is in my bedroom. If they're not playing in the rooms, they're sleeping in them.. So would mine be 100% or a bit less because of the bathroom?

Is there a way that I can estimate a bit for my taxes that I'm doing for last year since I didn't know I could do this?

[Snowmom]

I have kids 5 days a week, 10 hours a day. Actually 10 hours and 10 minutes a day . When you talk about the average space percent, is that how much of my house that is used for daycare? I have a 4 bedroom ranch and the kids utilize every room except my small bathroom that is in my bedroom. If they're not playing in the rooms, they're sleeping in them.. So would mine be 100% or a bit less because of the bathroom?

Is there a way that I can estimate a bit for my taxes that I'm doing for last year since I didn't know I could do this?

You would use your T/S percentage for any rooms you use for daycare that you ALSO use for personal use outside of daycare hours. Any room that you use ONLY for daycare and no other personal use (even storing personal items) is 100%.
My own T/S percentage is 39.26, which gave me a $10k deduction this year. I have one room used exclusively for daycare, the rest of the sq footage I use is deducted at 39.26%.

[lovemykidstoo]

You would use your T/S percentage for any rooms you use for daycare that you ALSO use for personal use outside of daycare hours. Any room that you use ONLY for daycare and no other personal use (even storing personal items) is 100%.
My own T/S percentage is 39.26, which gave me a $10k deduction this year. I have one room used exclusively for daycare, the rest of the sq footage I use is deducted at 39.26%.

I guess this is just so confusing to me. I do have a 4th bedroom that is 100% used for daycare. I have 3 other bedrooms that are used sometimes for napping, some storage. Honestly I don't know if 1 of them is approved through licensing, only because I didn't think I'd need it for a portacrib. How can I figure this out? I am clueless. The kids use my kitchen/dining room, bathroom, living room

[Snowmom]

I guess this is just so confusing to me. I do have a 4th bedroom that is 100% used for daycare. I have 3 other bedrooms that are used sometimes for napping, some storage. Honestly I don't know if 1 of them is approved through licensing, only because I didn't think I'd need it for a portacrib. How can I figure this out? I am clueless. The kids use my kitchen/dining room, bathroom, living room

It can be confusing.
First, you need to figure out the square footage of each room and the total square footage of your home.
Then figure out how many hours you spend working in the home (including cleaning, prepping, internet research-like this, plus working hours).
Tom explains T/S here: http://tomcopelandblog.com/how-to-ca...e-year-is-over

The formulas are all entered in Turbo Tax if you do taxes yourself- you just need the basics (sq ftg and time working).

Unless you have a good tax preparer who really knows daycare allowances, it's almost more beneficial to read up on what's allowed and do taxes yourself. I had a tax preparer who SAID she knew daycare, yet didn't deduct HALF of what I knew I was allowed. She said I owed over $5000 in 2015. I redid them myself asking Tom some questions here about my big expenses I wasn't sure of ended up only owing $400!

[lovemykidstoo]

It can be confusing.
First, you need to figure out the square footage of each room and the total square footage of your home.
Then figure out how many hours you spend working in the home (including cleaning, prepping, internet research-like this, plus working hours).
Tom explains T/S here: http://tomcopelandblog.com/how-to-ca...e-year-is-over

The formulas are all entered in Turbo Tax if you do taxes yourself- you just need the basics (sq ftg and time working).

Unless you have a good tax preparer who really knows daycare allowances, it's almost more beneficial to read up on what's allowed and do taxes yourself. I had a tax preparer who SAID she knew daycare, yet didn't deduct HALF of what I knew I was allowed. She said I owed over $5000 in 2015. I redid them myself asking Tom some questions here about my big expenses I wasn't sure of ended up only owing $400!

I understand about figuring the time part of how much I do in my house etc, but it's the square footage part that's hard for me. We have an 1800 square foot house. One bedroom 10 x 12 is used exclusively for daycare. There is 1 bathroom probably 4 X 6 that is not used at all. One of the bedrooms I'm not sure if I'm under licensing as using it, but I do have a little one sleep in a portacrib in there. Do the kids have to sleep in there or can you store things in a room and consider it part of your square footage? So when I figure out the square footage, what do I do with that and the time part? I know that my tax lady won't know how to do this because she has me at 23%, which is not right. I'm going to do it myself next year. I just bought Tom's book.

[lovemykidstoo]

I just looked at my licensing page. They only have approved my playroom, the kitchen, dining and living room as approved spaces. The kids are in those rooms all of the time. The playroom is not used by our family at all. So it's 110 square feet for the playroom and 627 square feet for the other rooms (living, kitchen, entry way, bathroom). Our entire house is 1,800 square feet. I calculate 3100 hours between working and extra hours cleaning, training online, record keeping etc. Can someone show me the math on this? Thank you so much

This is from Tom's book. "Step two: Identify the rooms in your home that are regularly used for your business. Regular use means a room is used at least two-three times per week for business purposes. You can count laundry rooms, office, and other rooms that children don’t enter, but you use for business purposes. Include your basement and garage if they are used regularly. Add up the square feet of these regularly used rooms. Divide this number by the total number of square feet in your home."

So if I don't use the extra bedroom because licensing hasn't approved it, but my son is at college and I do my bookkeeping at his desk now, I can count that square footage, the garage because that's where I keep the outside toys, my laundry room because that's where I do the blankets and sheets the kids use? This is my last obstacle before I can call 2017 taxes done!

[lovemykidstoo]

It can be confusing.
First, you need to figure out the square footage of each room and the total square footage of your home.
Then figure out how many hours you spend working in the home (including cleaning, prepping, internet research-like this, plus working hours).
Tom explains T/S here: http://tomcopelandblog.com/how-to-ca...e-year-is-over

The formulas are all entered in Turbo Tax if you do taxes yourself- you just need the basics (sq ftg and time working).

Unless you have a good tax preparer who really knows daycare allowances, it's almost more beneficial to read up on what's allowed and do taxes yourself. I had a tax preparer who SAID she knew daycare, yet didn't deduct HALF of what I knew I was allowed. She said I owed over $5000 in 2015. I redid them myself asking Tom some questions here about my big expenses I wasn't sure of ended up only owing $400!

Holy cow, that's a huge savings, good for you!!! I'm trying to get ours down from $9,000. No way we owe that. She has to be doing something wrong.

[Julia2]

Do you have a LLC? I just have one kid, my husband does 50k per year, I am playing to open a LLC and take care 6 children, I hope I never gonna own money , and I will safe all the receipts, thank you

[Alwaysgreener]

Do you have a LLC? I just have one kid, my husband does 50k per year, I am playing to open a LLC and take care 6 children, I hope I never gonna own money , and I will safe all the receipts, thank you

Why do you need a LLC (limited liability company) to take more kids? Most states don't require a LLC, they just require that you get licensed.
I have a DBA (doing business as) because I named my daycare. I looked into a LLC but it was to expensive.