ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion Tax Writeoffs - List

Don't forget to schedule the appointment as late as possible and on Friday.

I tried to claim a couple and my accountant told me that I can't. I supply coins for each van for parking, so there's no excuse for my employees to get parking tickets. If they do and don't pay them, I get a notice from the city a few months later and the fee is higher (original ticket is $5, goes up to $15). This is deducted off the employee's paycheck when I pay it. I have all employees sign a form when they're hired stating they agree to this.

Don't call it a parking ticket when you claim it, call it a $15 parking fee. After all, there's no reciepts for those spots where you just stuff bills through the little slots so they can't require you to have reciepts for every time you parked your truck. Besides, the best spots are expensive, everyone knows that! If they only get ya 2 days a week, that's just $5 or so/day.

Or if you don't claim it as a business expense, claim it as a local parking tax. After all, everything paid to your local government is a tax, right?

(FYI, I'm not a tax lawyer.)

They will look at what your competitors pay for "parking" and set a benchmark. If you are out of the range they are used to seeing they will want to see some kind of documentation.
99% of IRS "compliance" audits are triggered by something the computer sees as being out of the normal range. If your peers are paying $5 a day to park in a garage or plug the all day meters and you do as well playing the "dodge the meter maid" game on short term meters you probably get away with it.
I would still have your drivers making out a daily log and spreading their parking tickets out across the days, if for no other reason, so you know how much it is costing you.
When I was on the road working I kept a log of everything I did in my vehicles and it really came in handy later. The trick is just getting started doing it. Once it becomes your routine it is just second nature to write everything down.