As an independent contractor, What can be claimed on your taxes?

Hello

As an independent contractor, you can claim, expenses related to your office, professional dues, moving expenses, Office supply purchases etc.

You can also claim the rent as expenses, if you are renting an office, or a portion of your home, if you are using it EXCLUSIVELY for work.

You will file a Schedule C for your return.

Hope this helps!

One of the biggest deductions is mileage on your personally-owned vehicle that is business-related. However, you must be careful.

If you work at the same location each day, the initial trip to your job location and the trip home every evening are COMMUTING expenses, which are NEVER DEDUCTIBLE.

However, if you use your personal vehicle to drive to different work assignments from day to day, or you drive in your vehicle to visit clients, then that mileage IS deductible at either 48.5 cents a mile or on a pro-rated basis of ALL of the costs of the vehicle (to include the purchase price).

Finally, be careful about business use of the home. The rules about the EXCLUSIVE USE of the business portion of the home are very strict and are easy to invalidate. It tends to be an audit flag if the expenses claimed very high.