Real Estate Photographer Independent Contractor - Mileage and Expenses question

[shirlsquirrel]

Hello:  I started working as an Independent Contractor (Real Estate Photographer) in May.   Question about expenses:

-Typically, I use my own vehicle to travel over 500 miles per week.  Do I just enter total mileage for year when I file taxes or is it better to use Quickbooks on a weekly or monthly basis to report mileage? 

-Can I deduct small meal fee each day I'm working ($5)?

-Can I deduct my business and equipment insurance,  Health insurance and SEP (Self-employment Pension - only added $500 so far)?

Thank you so much!

[drc845443]

You need to keep a mileage log so that you can distinguish between miles traveled for business and mileage for personal or other purposes. I recommend using QuickBooks to track your mileage.

You can deduct meals consumed while conducting business.

Business and equipment insurance are deductible.

You can deduct self-employed health-insurance premiums if you qualify - please see conditions and rules  in the link below: 

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/home-ownership/deducting-health-insurance-premiums-if-youre-sel...

You can also deduct your SEP contributions: 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/retirement/discussion/how-do-you-enter-your-sep-ira-contributions-...

[shirlsquirrel]

Thank you so much!  I keep track of mileage every day for business, since day 1.  

Thank you for doing this Q&A forum - many great questions asked from the community and solid answers!

[NateTheGrEAt]

To clarify one point on the meals, you can only deduct meals if one of the following is true:

1. You are traveling away from home on business. (Traveling away from home means you are away overnight,  outside of your "tax home" i.e. the general area in which you regularly live and work). 

2. There is a business meeting (for example, with a customer, client, etc.) at the meal. 

In other words, if you are conducting your regularly daily real estate photography business, around the areas you normally work in, and you stop and grab a sandwich that you eat by yourself, that is not a deductible business meal. 

See p. 11 of Pub 463 for more details. 2020 Publication 463 (irs.gov)