Is That Deductible? It Depends: "Horse-trade and The Wild Rose Moon"

Oops I Forgot

I enjoy Fridays because it's my day out of the clinic, allowing me the flexibility to work on my micro-businesses and accomplish other tasks.

As fall sets in, I absolutely adore the vibrant colors and cool air. However, I must admit that I'm not particularly fond of the diminishing sunlight, especially in the mornings when I strive to complete my 5-mile run multiple times a week. So, after patiently waiting for the sun to gracefully rise, I embarked on my invigorating run.

As I sat down to eat breakfast after showering, I noticed a text from my office manager: "Did you forget our provider meeting?" Oops! I am usually quite organized and rarely miss a meeting, but this one slipped my mind. Luckily, I was able to quickly jump into the meeting using my phone and Microsoft Teams.

The New Computer

Part of the problem was that I was distracted by my new 15-inch MacBook Air, which I desperately needed for my work with SimpliMD. All the work I have been doing with our online community has really consumed a lot of my computer's memory. As a result, I had to upgrade and purchase a computer with 16 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage. So, before I went to bed, I began the multi-hour process of transferring items from my old Mac to the new one using the Migration Assistant.

Now in the morning with everything migrated, I could continue loading and organizing my computer to my liking. My ultimate goal is to get everything ready for our first webinar this week. So now, I have to load up and test my new streaming software with StreamYard and do a trial run of a live stream. To be honest, I have never done a live stream before, so the thought of pulling it off makes me just a little anxious. The good news is that my trial run was successful, so I'm optimistic that everything will go well in Dallas on Friday September 29th with “Are You Ready To Take Control Of Your Future?”

New Partnership

Now, for the next test of the new computer, I did a Zoom call with Mike Jesowshek with The Small Business Tax Saving Podcast, TaxElm, and IncSight. We had a delightful conversation about partnering together to provide valuable small business tax and accounting resources for our SimpliMD community. You can expect to hear more about this developing relationship in the future, But for now, you can check them out on the recommended professional network box on the homepage.

To ensure I didn't miss anything, I had our attorney listen in on the Zoom call. I always appreciate his careful review of any resources I bring to our community. After the Zoom call, we had a debriefing session, which received a strong thumbs up from him this new network member.

Paperwork

My dad bravely served our country in the Vietnam War, where he was exposed to Agent Orange. As a result, he developed multiple medical conditions related to this exposure, which had a devastating impact on his health. While my mom used a VA grant to get their home and bathroom handicap adapted with the hope of bringing him home, he has been rehabbing in the nursing home. The contractor has completed the work, and now my mom has entrusted me with completing all the grant completion paperwork. I diligently worked through all of the grant requirements and promptly e-mailed the necessary documents to the VA for my mom. The unfortunate reality is that despite all the efforts, it seems that my dad's health is deteriorating rapidly, and it is unlikely that he will be able to come home. In these last few months, I will cherish every moment with my dear dad, who is slowly fading away.

Charting

I received an urgent call from my office manager regarding a patient matter. After successfully managing that crisis, I decided to log into the computer and attend to non-urgent tasks in the remote clinic, such as messages and results. With two physicians recently leaving our clinic, the workload has increased due to the additional "coverage" work for their former patients. However, I find it refreshing to have a day out of the clinic to handle various personal and professional matters, Covering patient needs while I am away just comes with the territory, and remote access makes it much easier.

Apple Webinar

To fully maximize the power of my MacBook Air for managing images and videos associated with SimpliMD, I decided to sign up for a teaching session on photos and videos.The 45-minute live session was highly informative and helped me discover numerous beneficial shortcuts, tips, and workflows that will undoubtedly prove helpful. There were several e-learns that were also sent to me, which I will check out later when I have more time.

Groundskeeper

I have outsourced the groundskeeping and landscape work for both our primary home and our Legacy guest house to a reliable older man who offers his services at a very reasonable rate. Paul is a delightful man who is always ready to chat about anything imaginable. This time, he came up with a method to fix our mums that our outdoor cat had been tearing up. I was truly impressed with his solution. During our conversation, Paul asked about my hauling trailer, which I had parked behind the Legacy house, as he noticed that I didn't use it much. He asked if I had any interest in selling it. Since I had used it to haul lots of things over the past 10 years but now rarely used it, I figured this was a good time to get rid of it. So, I suggested a horse trade.I asked him how much he would pay me for the trailer, and then he could credit that amount to my account for the work he was doing. He was savvy enough to suggest that we apply his work at my primary house, which was not a deductible business expense, unlike the work he did at the Legacy house. After agreeing to the deal, I went to find the title so that I could sign it over to him. Since the missing title was not in my file, I had to make a quick trip to the BMV to complete a missing title application. Afterward, I informed Paul that he could go ahead and take the trailer for a job he had already planned.

Dinner and A Concert

Our home is nestled on a tree-lined main street, just half a block away from the charming downtown retail district of our little town. That makes it easy to take a little stroll to our dinner plan. at the Brass Rail and then attend an intimate acoustic guitar concert at our intimate little performing arts center called the Wild Rose Moon. The Tod & Ellen Stillson Foundation generously sponsors weekly "open mic" sessions for the community. In return, we are fortunate to receive a few perks at the moon. This week, that included a couple of "free" concert tickets for an evening show that appeared at my clinic. We attended and thoroughly enjoyed a great concert with approximately 30 other patrons, including a couple of other community doctors whom we enjoyed chatting with. We are passionate about supporting the arts in our community as it greatly enhances the quality of life for everyone. My wife and I feel incredibly enriched by having such easy access to something so inspiring and impactful.

Is That Deductible? It Depends

Now is the time for us to figure out what qualifies as a business expense and what does not. The critical component is determining if there was a business purpose for the expense.

Remote Clinic Meeting on Teams: My smartphone, monthly mobile service, and internet service are expensed out to my PC, while the hospital provides the Microsoft Teams software.

The New Computer: This is a valuable business asset for my PC, which is also used by several of my micro-businesses. The cost was just under $2500, so I will collaborate with my accountant to determine the most effective way to document this expense. We will discuss whether to depreciate it as a business asset or implement a capitalization policy for PC assets under $2500. The business purposes of the computer for my PC are varied but include several items discussed in this post

Webinar Resources: Streaming on Facebook is free, and SimpliMD has purchased an annual membership for a virtual professional streaming and recording studio called StreamYard. The other elements of the production including my computer and cell-phone webcam will be "borrowed" from the PC.

Zoom Meeting with The Small Business Tax Saving Podcast: I have a Calendly account and a Zoom account that are expensed to my business development micro-business. Both were used for this meeting, along with the internet service provided by my PC. No expenses are currently being generated by this new partnership. However, since we discussed the possibility of doing a webinar together in the future, it is possible that some expenses may arise later on. My lawyer, who joined us on the call, is paid a monthly fee for his work with my micro-businesses. This fee is considered a deductible business expense.

VA Paperwork: There are no business expenses associated with helping my mom and dad with this process, but it's definitely a pleasure to have a business office and equipment that make completing this type of work a breeze.

Clinic Charting: I used my new computer to remotely access my clinic's EHR. The computer and internet service were expensed to my business as a business expense.

Mac Webinar: This was a "free service" offered to those who purchase a new Apple computer. While it technically didn't cost anything, the business expense of the new computer provided the opportunity for the webinar. This follows the old expression, nothing is ever truly free.

Groundskeeper: Paul's work at our personal home is not eligible for a deductible business expense, but his work at our Legacy guest house qualifies as a deductible business expense since it is an LLC. The exchange of my personal trailer for $1000 worth of his grounds-keeping services at my personal home does not check any business purpose boxes, but it takes some business saavy to work out a deal. I suspect once Paul registers the trailer and obtains a license plate for it, it will likely be considered a taxable event for his business at the BMV.

Dinner and Concert; Our dinner was personal and not a business expense. The concert was a free perk associated with our donor-advised charitable fund. Since our micro-corporations contribute money to this charitable fund annually, I suppose you could associate the concert tickets with one of our micro-businesses—but there was no specific business purpose involved.

Just a friendly reminder, I am not a licensed accountant or lawyer, so please do not consider my personal experiences as professional advice for you.

However, I invite you to become a member of our SimpliMD community. By joining, you will gain access to our products and resources that will support your journey towards building micro-business competency.

If you're seeking a more personalized experience, I invite you to sign up for my SimpliMD Business Coaching program. I am passionate about helping you and would be thrilled to be a part of your journey!

Tod