Christmas Decorations? Write off?

[legomom922]

LOL Just wondering, since I am going through all my reciepts!

[TomCopeland]

Are Christmas decorations deductible?

It depends. You can deduct all expenses that are "ordinary and necessary" in your business.

I'll give two examples:

Provider A spends $200 on Christmas decorations. She involved her day care children in putting them up. She celebrates Christmas with the children by reading stories, singing songs, exchanging gifts, and generally incorporating Christmas into the learning curriculum of the children in her care. The cost would be deductible.

Provider B spends $200 on Christmas decorations. She doesn't involve the children in this expense. She doesn't incorporate it into her curriculum. The cost would not be deductible.

It's up to you to decide which provider you are. If you are provider A you need to keep some records to show what you did to incorporate Christmas into your curridulum.

[legomom922]

Hmmm. Interesting..I was thinking about retail stores or business and how they all must purchase Christmas decorations to dress up their "businesses" for the holidays, and since I would assume they are able to write them off as a business expense, I thought maybe I could too, since I dressed up my business for Christmas.

[TomCopeland]

Family child care providers are different than other businesses in that their business is in your home. Of course, other storefront businesses can deduct Christmas decorations without question. You need to be able to show that Christmas decorations are used in your business. If you can do so, deduct a portion of their cost (time-space %).

[My4SunshineGirlsNY]

Originally Posted by TomCopeland

You need to be able to show that Christmas decorations are used in your business. If you can do so, deduct a portion of their cost (time-space %).

So we need to show photos of any Holiday decorations in our house that we purchase? And do those photos need to show the daycare kids? Just curious how this works incase of an audit. I claim my holiday decorations as TSP as I was told I could in a start-up business class I took when I started my business. They didn't mention anything about proving it or how to prove it.

[TomCopeland]

In an IRS audit the auditor might argue that you didn't use these decorations in your business. You would have to show why that's not true. To do this, take pictures of the decorations and write a note explaining how you used them in your business. How were the children involved in putting them up, or how you used them as part of various activities. Or how you shared stories and information with the children about Christmas.

[legomom922]

Ok, that makes sense now Well considering that my dck's were little and didnt put t hem up, I can't claim mine...darn..