Recent law changes include valuable breaks for a wide range of small businesses. What follows are the highlights of several good-news provisions.

Health Insurance Deductions for the Self-Employed:
Self-employed individuals can deduct 100 percent of their payments of medical insurance premiums for themselves, their spouses and dependents.

First-Year Expensing Deduction:
There are two ways small businesses can write off their outlays for equipment purchases, such as computers and file cabinets.

One is the "standard" route -- recovering the cost through depreciation deductions over a period of years. Or, they can opt for the often-overlooked tactic of "expensing," under tax-code section 179, and deduct a specified amount of equipment in the year of purchase.

Let's say you are self-employed and your equipment purchases include $10,000 for computers, copiers and the like. Instead of depreciating that equipment over five years, they can be immediately expensed. A $10,000 write-off lowers taxes by $3,000 for an individual in a top federal and state bracket of 30 percent.

There's a cap on the deduction, which is indexed, that is, adjusted annually to reflect inflation. The ceiling is $108,000 for 2006, up from $105,000 for 2005.

The paperwork for first-year expensing is straightforward. Businesses have to complete Form 4562 (Depreciation and Amortization). Self-employeds carry the Form 4562 deduction to, and enter it on, the line for "Depreciation and section 179 expense deduction" on the two-page Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business), which is where they report receipts, along with equipment costs and other expenses, to arrive at a net profit or loss. Once that has been accomplished, Form 4562 and Schedule C are supposed to accompany Form 1040.

The IRS becomes vexed when its instructions aren't followed exactly, as the following United States Tax Court case illustrates. A business owner decided to take a shortcut and not fill out Form 4562. Instead, he just listed the section 179 deduction on Schedule C. The Tax Court agreed with the IRS that he had forfeited his right to first-year expensing and was liable for many thousands of dollars in additional taxes, penalties and interest.

Profit From Paying Your Kids:
Do your children help out with your business? Could they? A savvy way to take care of their allowances at the expense of the IRS is to pay them wages for work they do. This tactic keeps income in the family, but shifts some of that income out of your higher bracket and into their lower one. For 2006, a child sidesteps taxes on the first $5,150 of earnings, a figure that is scheduled to increase in later years. For this business expense to stand up under IRS scrutiny, your children must actually render services and you must pay them reasonable wages.

Internal Revenue Code Section 3121(b)(3)(A) exempts the wages you pay your children under the age of 18 from Social Security taxes, provided you do business as (1) a sole proprietorship (IRS lingo for the lone owner of a full-time or part-time business that's not formed as a corporation or partnership) or (2) a husband-wife partnership. To put it another way: This exemption doesn't apply to a family business that's incorporated or a partnership with a partner other than a spouse.

Write-offs for equipment purchases and wages enable self-employeds to save more than just income taxes. They also reduce self-employment taxes owed for 2006 on the first $94,200 of net (receipts minus expenses) earnings.

Published: August 31, 2006

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Julian Block is an attorney and author based in Larchmont, N.Y. He has been cited as “a leading tax professional” (New York Times), "an accomplished writer on taxes" (Wall Street Journal) and "an authority on tax planning" (Financial Planning Magazine).More of his articles are at julianblocktaxexpert.com. His books include “Julian Block’s Home Seller’s Guide to Tax Saving.” Law professor James Edward Maule of Villanova University praised it as “an easy-to-read and well organized explanation of the tax rules. Home sellers would be well advised to buy this book.” It is available from PassKey Publications, as well as at outlets such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.