Firewood and the Tax man?

I think that would be a different forum.....

 

Careful with trying to save taxes owed by deducting firewood...as soon as they realize that there is more 2 or 3 of us not paying our "fair share" of gas/oil heat taxes they'll figure a way to "get theirs". Kinda joking, but kinda not...

 

Don't worry brenndatomu , we won't mention you....

 

Start paying yourself wages for your time that it takes to CSS. Then figure the btu value. Find the mostest spendy form of heating and use the value per btu and apply that to your heat value of wood you have for a value to deduct from the legal theft bill uncle sends you. I am not a lawyer but I often play a disgruntled tax payer.

 

I bring the wood to my wife. If she paid me for my wood, would that be prostitution?

Solicitation of wood as an expense?

 

I share your tax pain but this is now and this now was not always the way. My pappy always told us kids ... "if you make enough money to have to pay taxes ... be grateful you were able to do that, pay up and thank God you are so blessed." that was 50 or 60 years ago and attitudes have sure changed. Dad's wisdom stood us all in good stead. My sister out did all of us and retired as Exec VP Global Sales in a large fortune 500 company and she had grade 12 education. Dad grew up during the depression, was on his own at a very young age, served in the RCAF during WWII and raised a family and retired with good income. Mom, now 97 still living well in a real nice place. I guess taxes are part of life ... like 'give to Caesar what is Caesar's ... If we could roll back the clock a couple hundred years we'd likely do things a bit differently. But she is what she is!

 

I agree that we pay what we pay, but it's not wrong to play by the rules and use those rules to your advantage. I'd rather see any extra I have go to charities than donate to our wasteful government.

 

When you start to interpret tax laws to your advantage, chances are it will catch up to you. I can't imagine that you are the first person that has tried to get around deductions in this manner.
Probably the only deduction allowed for firewood is the purchase price. As far as deduction expenses and fabricated charges for processing it, don't think its allowed.
Kinda like a stay at home Mom trying to deduct charges and expenses for all the work involved daily, you know? Teacher, nurse, chef, therapist, cleaner, etc. etc.

 

Right, thats why i asked here if anyone had any experience. The tax code is so deep that even my wife, a CPA with a masters in accounting, a bachelors in finance and a minor in economics cant know ALL of the code. I have found out through knowing her that the only people who REALLY know the code are the people who write the tax software. Even then there are things not in the software that only specialty groups have knowledge of and inform their accountants, book keepers and tax preparers of.

 

In a former life and residence, the (now ex) wife ran a business from the home. As I remember, she was only allowed a percentage of all expenses (based on square footage of the room used). The % of deduction was taken off all expenses-lights, heat-(which also included firewood-purchase cost only). Improvements to that specific room; new windows, flooring, paint, etc. were directly deductable.

But again, this was back in the late 80's so tax laws may very well have become more lenient??????????????

 

You got it right. its basically 1/3 of all house expenses are deductable. Thats why i was wondering if anyone else found a way to quantify our hoarding wood thing for this purpose.

 

Excellent observation. You make a good point. Me too! I just don't spend any extra mental energy trying to squeeze the last nickel out of my tax bill. I dread trying to figure taxes owed so take it all to an accountant and he asks a few questions and does it all for us and we pay relatively low taxes and have been audited twice no problems at all. I let go of these few bucks and in return have peace of mind and freedom to focus on more important stuff. I thank God every day for all our blessings and help the less fortunate as much as we are able. It's amazing how our blessing have multiplied. I do not worship money and never will. I worship God and try to let his wisdom guide us in all things. Money is just that, money, a means of exchange. Don't get me wrong I know it is very difficult to make ends meet when in business for yourself. I have been very, very fortunate to say the least. Others not so much. I worked as a missionary with inner city homeless a few years back and it was an honor and a privilege. Some people are dealt terrible hands but they are beautiful people just like you and I. I may have learned more during that time than the 7 years of university education. Peace brother!

 

I am on my second year of being the sole person in my construction and handyman business. I do most trades, the ones I don't I choose not to because I know I'm not good enough or trained enough to charge people to do them. We found out we owe about 4,000. I only pay my family 450 a week. The business pays is own bills, I have some savings but really would like to find ways to be responsible for less. An extra $400 ish a month to uncle Sam is going to suck for the next year. ....

 

That's a lot of tax for a sole owner small business. All my friends in Michigan say things like "you Canucks are taxed to death" or comments that imply the same. I am not sure we're all that bad off when I see some of the property tax posts and post like yours etc. Most all of our health care is paid for and our property taxes are reasonable. Estate taxes are fairly low when a person passes on. College tuition is low by comparison. All this tax stuff is way beyond me. My guy is a CA and does nothing but taxes for small businesses and individuals. He takes the time to get rulings on anything he considers a grey area. I could not begin to deal with this stuff on my own. Good luck ...

 

You better be careful, this government will take 1/3 of your wood and give it to someone sitting on their azz playing video games all day. Sad, but true.