The Internal Revenue Service provides many different educational products, webinars and videos to help small businesses thrive.
Take child care services as an example. The IRS webinar “Tax-Related Guidance for Child Care Providers” provides information that would be beneficial for a provider just starting out in the business as well as anyone who is relatively new in the business.
Most small businesses employ CPAs to handle their financial needs, but having some knowledge of what is going on regarding the financial side of the business is important.
The child care webinar is broken down into four main topics:
- Child Care Income– This section covers various types of income that must be reported. Some examples are:
- Income from contracts specifying charges, terms and responsibilities
- Late pick-up or early drop-off fees
- Registration fees
- Child Care Expenses– This section focuses on what criteria must be met for an expense to be deductible. Some examples of topics covered in this section are:
- The business must be a for-profit activity. Remember, hobby losses are not deductible.
- The expense must be ordinary and necessary.
- An allocation must be made for business/personal expenses. Only the business portion is deductible.
- Personal expenses are never deductible.
- Special Rules– A hot button for child care providers is the business use of the home. The webinar covers the special method used to compute the business use percentage of a home available only for daycare service providers.
- Other Expenses– There are some expenses common to the daycare industry. The webinar discusses how to deal with these expenses:
- Food consumed by daycare recipients, including the USDA food reimbursement program
- Supplies such as games, books, child-proofing devices, toys and diapers
- Depreciation expenses
Child care is only one of several businesses that can benefit from the targeted IRS educational products. Check out the various webinars and videos at www.irsvideos.gov.