If you have only
income from self-employment and no expenses, there is no need to upgrade from
Deluxe. If you do have expenses, however, that will trigger an upgrade to the
TurboTax Self-Employed edition.
Expenses, however,
could reduce your total income and overall tax bill. Including SE tax (social
security/medicare tax) of 15% and a 15% tax rate, $280 of expenses would save
you around $84 in taxes. At 25% tax bracket, it would mean a $112 saving, and so
on.
Here are some more
expenses that may help boost that difference:
http://quickbooks.intuit.com/self-employed-center/complete-list-of-self-employed-expenses-and-tax-de...
Since you have a home-based business, you may qualify to deduct home office expenses.
The home office deduction lets you deduct
things like rent, mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs, and
depreciation for the portion of your home used for business. It's available to
homeowners and renters alike.
You may be able to claim the home office
deduction if your office is used regularly
and exclusively for your business and is your principal
place of business. In addition, if you're working at home for an
employer, your home office must be for the convenience of your employer
– not just you.
This means if your employer lets you
telecommute as an option, you can't take the deduction. However, if your
employer doesn't have their own office or workplace, forcing you to work from
home, you may be able to claim the deduction.
When you enter your home office information
in TurboTax, we'll determine if you can claim the deduction and how much the
deduction is worth.
