Membership in InterNACHI is tax deductible, so if you are due to renew your membership in January or February or March of 2014, you might want to renew before December 31, 2013 and take the deduction in 2013.
Same is true for other business expenses. It matters not when an invoice is due, if you pay for something in 2013, you can deduct it in 2013.
The reverse is true too. If you do a bunch of inspections between Christmas and New Year’s Day, you might just want to hold the checks and deposit them on January 2nd, 2014. 
Also, putting a business expense on your credit card in the month of December, 2013 is deductible in the 2013 tax year, even though you don’t pay your credit card until 2014.
Good tips.
Also, if you collect credit card payments at the end of December for inspections you have performed, you may want to wait until New Year’s Day to process the batch as they aren’t considered income until the year the payments are actually deposited into your checking account.
And more good news… the reverse is not true about checking accounts. A check written for a business expense and put in the mail in December 2013 can be deducted in 2013, even though the check doesn’t clear until 2014.
And New Year’s Eve falls on a Tuesday, a day the Post Offic is in operation. Therefore any check for business expenses written on New Year’s Eve is deductible in 2013 even though it might not come out of your bank account until 2014.
And if you want to send me a non deductible cash donation to my marketing fund or some gifts in kind I’ll be more than happy to claim them on my taxes…
Good reminders Nick
And if you want to apply for your CMI before December 31st, you can deduct the entire fee on your 2013 tax return.
Actually my bookkeeper told me last year that the Feds will now look into stuff like PayPal accounts as income.
They want it reported.
Bump.
What is considered “valuable consideration” and when should it be recorded as income, Nick?
Give me a hypothetical Jim. Do you mean if a home inspector trades his/her services to a farmer and the farmer pays with a pig?
In that scenario, the pig should be titled to the home inspector’s inspection corporation (the entity that provided the home inspection), and if on a cash accounting basis (likely), the cost of doing the inspection would be deductible immediately (to the company) but the pig wouldn’t be income (a taxable event) until the home inspection company sells the pig.
Same scenario but with a twist.
If the pig is valued at the cost of an inspection, say $500.00, and the pig gets eaten before it gets re-sold, is the pig then considered taxable income?
Yes, to the inspector. For a fringe benefit (in this case, free pork) to be excluded from taxation, the pork would have to be related to the home inspection business (it is not) and the inspector would have to be entitled to a deduction if his home inspection company made him buy the pork on his own (he is not) and the amount of pork eaten would have to be substantiated and documented. All three would have to be true for the pork not to be a taxable event to the inspector.
The only way to do it would be for your home inspection company to give you the pork as part of your meals when you travel out of town on inspection business. Then eating the pig wouldn’t be a taxable event to the inspector.
It’s not even 11 AM here and it is already our all-time biggest day for sales. Get your orders placed today to get the tax deduction for 2013.
Where can I get an invoice marked paid for my membership this past year?
Thanks!
Nick … Can you provide a definition for “business income”?
Geezzz Bushie, haven’t you learned anything yet??
Passing information on about taxes and the IRS is a no no on this site?
Are you trying to get Nick to join you getting sued for providing tax suggestions to members? :mrgreen::mrgreen: