self employed help

[moonwalkbhoy]

see when i get my tax returns form,do i include every thing ive bought for the yr and stuff? like lenses etc

[ssim]

If you are running a part time business I would seriously advise you to get someone to do your taxes for you. Well worth the money, imo.

Your profile doesn't say where you are from so I can only relate my experience for my Canadian taxes. My accountant takes all my capital purchases (like expensive lenses) and puts them on a depreciation schedule. Quite honestly I do not need to understand everything that he does in detail but I do understand the process. He has always been able to find deductions that I would have never thought of.

When I shot part time I had a friend that worked in the government tax department help me with my taxes. The amount of the depreciation varied depending on the amount of revenue we showed as it was assumed that there was a significant amount of personal time on the same gear that was being used for business purposes.

Depending on the jurisdiction that you live in there should be a government website that could give you direction on what this should be. Again, if this is a significant part time business get a pro to do your books. If you are not generating that much income, think twice about setting yourself up for an audit by declaring very little income with alot of deductions.