Deductible expenses on Schedule C

[powerage]

This is for my personal return next year.

My new blog is about the idiots I see driving in my area. See my sig. I intend to make a profit from this site, and I have plans in mind and in progress to expand the site. I'm working on writing a business plan. This site is not a hobby. New content is added everyday. I have 5 ads above the fold, and I think that establishes a profit motive.

Now, say I go out driving, just for the sake of seeking new content I can write. As long as everything is documented, I should have no problem writing off the mileage, correct? I can easily drive 75 miles a day in my area. It would be a big deduction, and I'm not into raising red flags with our friends at the IRS.

I'm a noob when it comes to starting a business.

Thanks for your input,

Timothy

[David1980]

It's a lot easier to argue a profit motive if you actually make a profit. So the first goal should be to actually make a profit. Anyone can get somebody to pay them $0.50 to put a bumper sticker on their car, but that isn't going to show a profit motive and magically turn their commute into business miles for their advertising business.

As far as driving around, it's really going to depend on whether there's other motives for the driving. I usually do drive 50 miles a day. If I start a website and claim I'm just blogging traffic reports and interesting road phenomenon in my area that's not going to convert my commuting miles into business miles.

[taxea]

Where do you intend the income to come from?

[erchess]

Blogging Mileage

I wouldn't try to claim blogging mileage until I have a profit before and preferably even with those miles. After all, the IRS agent is likely to suspect an element of personal pleasure and an element of getting your errands done. Be fair - if the situation were reversed, would you feel differently about his mileage?

Next you need to keep detailed records of every mile you drive and what purpose or purposes it serves and for both blogging and non blogging trips what you see that ends up on your blog. The point is that it isn't believable that all your juicy sightings happen on blogging trips but it definitely needs to be the case that you couldn't reasonably have your site without the sightings from the blogging trips.

I would not be caught trying to deduct a blogging trip on which I made even one personal stop. I think even stopping to eat would be a mistake. You want to minimize the chance that a blogging trip will be perceived as having an ulterior motive. Wherever I began a blogging trip I would end it at the same place. Again you don't want to seem to have an ulterior motive for the trip.

Do you have a way for readers to post their outrageous sitings? You could certainly deduct business gifts or outright cash payments you made to people whose posts you judged worthy.

[erchess]

Taxea

Where do you intend the income to come from?

He has advertising on his site so I guess that is generating revenue and will generate more as he finds ways to attract traffic.