What Can I Write Off as T/S% On This List?

[legomom922]

I am working on my home improvement/yard folder. This is home improvement & yard stuff, and I need some clarification on what is and isnt deductable.


Professional pruning of our tree
Professional care for fertilizing and bug control, trimming, etc
Mulch
Ear plus & ear cuffs for when I mow the grass
Landscape timbers (created a mulch bed around our tree)
Grass seed
Weed killer
Ferilizier
Dump truck of dirt delivered to level ground for pool installation
Hammer
Burlap (to cover new grass seed)
Cholrine & Super shock chemicals ( for the pool)
Sod Staples
Jig Saw
Bird Food
Garden Gloves
New Hose
Hose holder
Water Spicket
Water Nozzle
Hammer Drill
Closet Pole
Wood, drywall (for adding closet doors project)
Closet doors
Paint (for same project)
Fiters for furnace
Central Humidier Installed
Remodel bathroom off our bedroom, (only used when a child napped in my room and used this bathroom after they woke up & I do store stuff in it like a closet (because its so big, ) Shower stall, beadboard, sink vanity, towel bars, installed a window, new fan, etc)
Laundry Poles & line installed

[TomCopeland]

Deductions

You raise a lot of questions here. I'll answer in this way. If I don't mention the item below that means you can deduct the business portion of the cost.

Ear plugs and ear muffs - personal, not deductible
Landscape timbers - considered part of land, not deductible
Pool supplies are only deductible if the day care children use the pool
Bird food - not deductible unless you keep records to show how you incorporate birds into your learning activities with children
Closet door project is only deductible if the business uses the closet
Bathroom remodeling - sounds personal to me, unless you can say that the day care children use it at least 2-3 times per week. You haven't shown me enough evidence to try to claim it as storage for items you use in your business on a regular basis.

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[legomom922]

Landscape timbers - considered part of land, not deductible

Closet door project is only deductible if the business uses the closet

Bathroom remodeling - sounds personal to me, unless you can say that the day care children use it at least 2-3 times per week. You haven't shown me enough evidence to try to claim it as storage for items you use in your business on a regular basis.

Tom, the items I left above in your quote, I have comments/questions on.

I was under the impression that home improvements increase the value of my home, and so why isnt making improvements to the outside landscaping not deductable? I am assuming since you did not mention the mulch, grass seed, etc that is deductable but the landscape timbers not..so I'm confused..

Now as far as the closet door project goes, my husband took out all of the old closet doors because they were horrible! They were like metal, and old, rusted, dented etc. Now when we measured the opening and then went to home depot, the standard closets doors these days are shorter than the old ones were, so my husband had to take drywall, and extend the wall above the closet doors by about 12 in or so, and had to fill it all in so the new doors would fit. Since this was quite an expensive project, we have been doing them one at a time, and most were comleted before I went into business (6/2010), but there were still 2 more to be done, 1 of our 3 bathrooms, and the hallway closet. Now you said I could deduct these if the closets were used for business, so if I am storing DC stuff in the closets, would that count? Plus the fact, that now that the closets are covered, nobody can get into them & get into stuff. The bathroom closet holds the potty seat, wash cloths, extra liguid soap, TP, hand sanitizer, binkies, thermometers, first aid kit, towels, extra wipes etc., and the hallway closet holds the blankets, burp cloths, pillows, DC mats etc.

Thirdly, we have a split level house and there are 3 BR's upstairs, one which is my husbands office, the other was used as a nap room room during the day when my son was in school, so when nap time was over, I would fold up the pnp's, moniter, etc, and stor them in this bathroom that is off our BR, because it was alot easier for me to stor them in there instead of taking them all the way down to the basement until the next day, as that would be the only other place they could fit or go, so thats how this bathroom was used as a "storage" place.

Now is there a general rule so I understand better in the future, as to how to determine what exactly is deductable when it comes to home improvements, landscaping, home upkeep, etc? I get soooo hung up on this stuff! Like I also dont understand why we could write off a lawn mower, that we would need anyway, but we cant claim the time by using teh mower to cut the grass...or why some things are deductabel while others are not, like with mulch vs landscape timbers..

[TomCopeland]

Expenses

Landscaping is a tricky thing. In general, the rule says that if you put in landscaping close enough to your home that it would be destroyed if your home was moved down the block, then you can depreciate the landscaping as part of the home over 39 years. If the landscaping wouldn't be destroyed if the home was moved then it's not deductible at all.

Mulch, grass seed, etc can be deductible since it costs less than $100.

You can deduct a portion of the hallway closet if you are storing daycare stuff in it.

It's a close call whether you could deduct the cost of the bathroom remodeling. This is because day care children do not go in there. To be able to count the room as regular use as a storage area is problematic. I understand you are storing some day care stuff in there. I'm concerned because the cost of the remodeling is mostly for the bathroom, not the bathroom closet. So, I would say you could probably count some of the cost of remodeling the closet, but that's all.