Tax Time Tidbits

[Francesca]

Originally Posted by wnytaxman

By tickets I assume you don't mean traffic tickets but rather professional licenses. As an employee professional licenses are deductible as a miscellaneous itemized deduction. As a business licenses are a deductible business expense.

Actually, I did mean to ask if traffic tickets are deductible if received "while conducting business".

It never occurred to me to wonder 'til all those posts about businesses and traffic laws, but it is a real question...it sounds sorta silly even to me, but that never stops me from asking!

[wnytaxman]

Originally Posted by Francesca

Actually, I did mean to ask if traffic tickets are deductible if received "while conducting business".

It never occurred to me to wonder 'til all those posts about businesses and traffic laws, but it is a real question...it sounds sorta silly even to me, but that never stops me from asking!

Traffic tickets, even those while on business, are not deductible. They are considered to be fines or penalties and there's no deduction for them. Some of my over the road truckers ask that question a lot as many state DOT's are getting very aggressive.

[wnytaxman]

One other item that I forgot to mention is do not take the instant refunds that many of the tax preparation chains push so hard on. Those instant refunds have got to be one of the biggest rip offs going. If you work out the fees compared to the refunds received the annual interest rates work out to over 500% in some circumstances.

[Jimooo]

Hey wnytaxman, what are the tax rules for a Moho to be considered a second home and can you claim interest paid ,up to what amount maximum , also can you claim any repairs or miles if not a business .


Thanks, James

[wnytaxman]

Originally Posted by Jimooo

Hey wnytaxman, what are the tax rules for a Moho to be considered a second home and can you claim interest paid ,up to what amount maximum , also can you claim any repairs or miles if not a business .


Thanks, James

James,

You can take the interest deduction as a second home as long as the motor home or RV has bathroom and kitchen facilities. The principal on the loan is capped at $1 million. The only possible deduction you could get for a non-business use RV for repairs would be the sales tax on those repairs if they were substantial. If you were using your RV for charitable work, you can take off $.14 a mile for the mileage incurred.

Ed

[Jimooo]

Hey thank's , Ed for that valuable information on these tax code's .

I'm sure others will benefit from the information that you have given also.


Happy RVing , James

[JohnBoyToo]

Thanks for the info on this 'stuff' -
much appreciated as it's been a LONG time since I did the rv as a second home trick...

given that more and more will be asked of us until the end - I want to write off as much as possible

FYI, just called my dealer (who self financed ours)
and their cpa told them they didn't need to send out 1098's !!!!

I said, hmmmm, please send mine out and they agreed....


and love it - 14 CENTS a mile ?!?! If we didn't already know it, that alone tells us how much out of touch the gooberment is with reality

[wnytaxman]

Originally Posted by JohnBoyToo

Thanks for the info on this 'stuff' -
much appreciated as it's been a LONG time since I did the rv as a second home trick...

given that more and more will be asked of us until the end - I want to write off as much as possible

FYI, just called my dealer (who self financed ours)
and their cpa told them they didn't need to send out 1098's !!!!

I said, hmmmm, please send mine out and they agreed....


and love it - 14 CENTS a mile ?!?! If we didn't already know it, that alone tells us how much out of touch the gooberment is with reality

Actually 1098's are only required for real estate mortgages, not RV loans. The main reason is that the bank or finance company is not supposed to know whether or not the RV qualifies as a second home. It always creates confusion because a lot of people put the RV interest on the mortgage interest line and then they get notices from our friends at the IRS.

The mileage rate is the standard rate for any charitable mileage regardless of what you are driving. I can see someone taking their RV on some charitable event they were working and not thinking about taking the mileage deduction. It's not much, but any savings that the tax law gives us should be taken.

Ed

[wnytaxman]

Originally Posted by Jimooo

Hey thank's , Ed for that valuable information on these tax code's .

I'm sure others will benefit from the information that you have given also.


Happy RVing , James

James, it's the only way I can think of to give back with some of the valuable info I've gotten here. I'm no mechanic....I'm still looking for the spark plugs on my diesel.

Ed

[jemma112]

Hello taxman, in a different thread Someone talked about paying sales tax, and then PROPERTY tax on the RV, did I misunderstand or do you have to pay a property tax on your rv every year?

[wnytaxman]

Originally Posted by jemma112

Hello taxman, in a different thread Someone talked about paying sales tax, and then PROPERTY tax on the RV, did I misunderstand or do you have to pay a property tax on your rv every year?

Jemma, some states, mostly in the South, levy a personal property tax on RV's. In some states it can be pretty substantial. Other states may not call it a personal property tax, but they have very high registration fees. The technical tax difference is the registration fee isn't deductible, but the personal property tax is deductible.

In tax it's not so much what it is as what it's called.

Ed

[Jimooo]

Hey Thanks Ed, I'm no mechanic either, you know that all these tax laws new/ old are hard to keep up with ,again thank you for your straight forward explanations of tax codes, and like you just said every little savings counts no matter how small.

Happy tax returns, James

[wnytaxman]

Yes James, a week from now I'll be buried under a sea of tax returns. That's okay as it helps to pay for this rather expensive hobby we have all gotten into.

For us the term "Many Happy Returns" has a much different meaning than it does for most. Hmmmm, come to think of it, why are they called returns when it shows what you paid and will never get back? I'll just leave that as the thought for the day!

[bluepill]

Publication #530 at IRS.Gov covers the mortgage interest deduction. I have not read the info for 2012 yet, but last year's allowed you to also deduct the cost of "Loan Life Insurance" .