I do computer repair / Network administration on the side right now for a lot of individuals, and a couple local small businesses. I'd like to see if I can get this to take off a bit more. I'm going next week to apply for a DBA, and I've already gotten ahold of my insurance company for quotes.

What I'm mostly curious about, is once I have my DBA, what am I required to do for filing taxes? Everyone keeps telling me how great it is because I can write so much stuff off as a business expense, but I don't think it'd really be right to write of thousands in car repairs, clothes, computer equipment etc. if I'm only going to be bringing in maybe 5-10,000 a year to start.

When I do start it, I will have my taxes done professionally, I'm just curious what all information I will NEED to have, and maybe what all is really allowed to be written off.

Thanks

Hi, suddenImpact!

Since your question has so much to do with taxes, I've moved it out of Business Plans to this forum topic are where it will be much more likely to be noticed and addressed by our Tax Experts.

I wish you well in your business efforts! If you ever want some help with getting the maximum exposure that you can on the Internet when people do searches for what you do, please let me know. Most of my new business for my small businesses comes from the free ads that I've posted on the Internet.

Thanks!

Whenever you buy ANYTHING even remotely associated with the business, keep the receipt. In fact, try getting a credit card that you will use exclusively for the business, then purchase everything for the business on that credit card.

Maintain a driving log for when you drive your car for business. Note the total mileage on your car on 1 January and 31 December, so the costs of maintaining the vehicle can be porperly pro-rated.

Finally, keep good track of your income stream.

All this can be done using a simple spreadsheet.