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Football Officiating => General Discussion => Topic started by: hefnerjm on February 21, 2017, 04:22:15 PM
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Spoiler alert - Business Management and Tax reporting content below...please feel free to ignore this post if you arent concerned with such things.
In past years, I never itemized, and usually just added up my officiating income from game fees and reported it as "otherwise not reported misc income".
This year, (mainly because I bought a house and itemized for the first time) I upgraded my TurboTax this year to the "Self-Employed" version for purposes of reporting officiating income as part of my "officiating business".
They apparently now give away a 1 year subscription to Quickbooks Self-Employed for expense tracking purposes, and it got me thinking about what kinds of things I should be doing to actually report everything like it were an actual business.
Couple of questions for folks out there in preparation for next tax year:
- How do you track your expenses/income for officiating?
- Do you use a log book to track your activities during the season, and in the offseason?
- What kinds of things do you track? (dues, mileage, meals, uniforms, clinic fees, travel expenses, etc?)
- Do you use a separate bank account for officiating income/expenses apart from your normal bank account?
- What advantages/disadvantages do you find for using the same/different bank accounts?
- Any easily overlooked or unusual things that you have deducted as part of your officiating "business"?
If anyone runs a small business or is otherwise self-employed and navigated some of these waters, I would love to hear from you too. Any feedback people have is really appreciated.
-Hef
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Spoiler alert - Business Management and Tax reporting content below...please feel free to ignore this post if you arent concerned with such things.
In past years, I never itemized, and usually just added up my officiating income from game fees and reported it as "otherwise not reported misc income".
This year, (mainly because I bought a house and itemized for the first time) I upgraded my TurboTax this year to the "Self-Employed" version for purposes of reporting officiating income as part of my "officiating business".
They apparently now give away a 1 year subscription to Quickbooks Self-Employed for expense tracking purposes, and it got me thinking about what kinds of things I should be doing to actually report everything like it were an actual business.
Couple of questions for folks out there in preparation for next tax year:
- How do you track your expenses/income for officiating?
- Do you use a log book to track your activities during the season, and in the offseason?
- What kinds of things do you track? (dues, mileage, meals, uniforms, clinic fees, travel expenses, etc?)
- Do you use a separate bank account for officiating income/expenses apart from your normal bank account?
- What advantages/disadvantages do you find for using the same/different bank accounts?
- Any easily overlooked or unusual things that you have deducted as part of your officiating "business"?
If anyone runs a small business or is otherwise self-employed and navigated some of these waters, I would love to hear from you too. Any feedback people have is really appreciated.
-Hef
I keep a spreadsheet for all my games (including scrimmages) teams, times, locations,level, position and all expenses (mileage, meals, lodging, etc). Also track professional association dues, equipment purchases, continuation Training (clinics, etc)
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Couple of questions for folks out there in preparation for next tax year:
- How do you track your expenses/income for officiating?
- Do you use a log book to track your activities during the season, and in the offseason?
- What kinds of things do you track? (dues, mileage, meals, uniforms, clinic fees, travel expenses, etc?)
- Do you use a separate bank account for officiating income/expenses apart from your normal bank account?
- What advantages/disadvantages do you find for using the same/different bank accounts?
- Any easily overlooked or unusual things that you have deducted as part of your officiating "business"?
I've attached a spreadsheet that I've been using for several years. When it's time to do my taxes, I print it off and take it to my CPA.
I use a separate bank account for my football income. The main reason I do this is because we don't want to rely on football for our living expenses. I don't want it going into our main account because if it's there, "we" will spend it. ;) I like to use my football income for extra things like vacation, etc. If we need additional money in our main account, I can log into the bank and move some in about a minute.
Any easily overlooked or unusual things that you have deducted as part of your officiating "business"?
Here are some of the things my CPA told me about that I didn't initially think about. You may already know about all of these, but hopefully it will help someone.
- Home square footage used for my business...your office area.
- Business use of my cell phone plan and other home utility bills.
- Electronic equipment. I bought an iPad last year to watch my games on. It's 100% deductible.
- Office supplies. I print my own game cards and deducted a new printer.
- Training equipment. I had an injury one year and could deduct equipment I bought for this. I've tried to deduct running shoes and workout clothes I wear to stay in shape, but since I don't use them during the games, my CPA wouldn't let me deduct that.
- If it's being used for your business, you can deduct it...or some of it. Use your imagination. :)
I'm not a CPA by any stretch of the imagination, but I have spent quite a bit of time talking to the one who does my taxes...and asking a lot of questions. If you have other questions you don't want to post out here, feel free to send me a personal message on here.
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Great off-season topic! I look forward to seeing what others have to add.
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Here are my spreadsheet column headers:
Date
Category
Level
Teams / Description
Location
Mileage TO Site
Mileage Home
Total Mileage (Sum of previous 2 cols)
Hotel
Meals
Parking
Flight
Tolls
Clinic Fee
Rental Car
Dues
Other
Game Fee
Comments
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- How do you track your expenses/income for officiating?
I maintain a spreadsheet that I update any time I have a game or spen money on officiating.
- Do you use a log book to track your activities during the season, and in the offseason?
See #1
- What kinds of things do you track? (dues, mileage, meals, uniforms, clinic fees, travel expenses, etc?)
everything related to officiating - including what you mentioned; however, not meals to/from a game as to my understanding you really cannot deduct those.
- Do you use a separate bank account for officiating income/expenses apart from your normal bank account?
no
- What advantages/disadvantages do you find for using the same/different bank accounts?
no enough in/out to justify it. Expenses are with a debit card so you can pull that and/or keep receipts.
- Any easily overlooked or unusual things that you have deducted as part of your officiating "business"?
cell phonse usage during the year related to officiating.