Tax Discussion

[hefnerjm]

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

[TxSkyBolt]

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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[Grant - AR]

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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[TxBJ]

Great off-season topic!  I look forward to seeing what others have to add.

[bossman72]

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

[TampaSteve]

• 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.