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Daycare and Taxes>Time Spent Tending Veggie Gardens
Mom2Two 04:51 PM 10-18-2017
I spend quite a lot of time tending my veggie gardens, and my daycare kids eat fresh veggies and fruit from it most of the year, and I also dehydrate veggies and use some of them for daycare in the Winter, for example, I can put dehydrated veggies in smoothies.

Many daycare parents love that I do this and it is a selling point.

Can I count this time in t/s% or part of it? I would still do this even if I didn't run a daycare, but the reality is that they do eat a significant percentage of what I grow.
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TomCopeland 05:37 PM 10-18-2017
Originally Posted by Mom2Two:
I spend quite a lot of time tending my vegie gardens, and my daycare kids eat fresh vegies and fruit from it most of the year, and I also dehydrate vegies and use some of them for daycare in the Winter, for example, I can put dehydrated vegies in smoothies.

Many daycare parents love that I do this and it is a selling point.

Can I count this time in t/s% or part of it? I would still do this even if I didn't run a daycare, but the reality is that they do eat a significant percentage of what I grow.
The general rule is this: you can only count time spent in your home as a business activity if you wouldn't be doing it if you weren't in business. I assume that your family eats some of the vegetables you grow, therefore don't count all of the time spent in the garden. You can count time preparing food served to the daycare children.
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Mom2Two 05:41 PM 10-18-2017
Thanks, Tom. So if I figure the dcks eat about 30% of the food I grow, then I'll count 30% of the hours I spend tending the garden, correct?
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TomCopeland 10:48 PM 10-18-2017
Originally Posted by Mom2Two:
Thanks, Tom. So if I figure the dcks eat about 30% of the food I grow, then I'll count 30% of the hours I spend tending the garden, correct?
There is no clear guidance from the IRS on this question. To count these hours would be taking a very assertive position. I think this would be challenged by the IRS in an audit. If it's only 20 or so hours I don't think this would attract much attention. If it's over 100 hours I think would be challenged and you might lose.
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Leigh 10:02 AM 10-19-2017
Originally Posted by TomCopeland:
There is no clear guidance from the IRS on this question. To count these hours would be taking a very assertive position. I think this would be challenged by the IRS in an audit. If it's only 20 or so hours I don't think this would attract much attention. If it's over 100 hours I think would be challenged and you might lose.
So, I have a garden for the kids. They plant, tend it, eat it/take it home. I have never considered claiming time that I spend on it outside of daycare! Would it be a good idea to do so? Would *I* claim 100% of that time, since the kids are the ones eating it? We really don't eat it ourselves, just because the kids devour everything on their own.
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Mom2Two 05:31 PM 10-19-2017
I have about 800 sf of vegie garden alone, plus 200 sf raspberries, seven fruit trees, grape vines, asparagus, rhubarb, an herb garden and more if I stopped to think about it. I'm not talking about a tiny hobby garden. We really eat out of our garden and so do the dck. Wouldn't the size make a difference in the credibility of # of hours?

20 hours would be unrealistic considering how many meals are served with vegies here. I am completely serious. In daycare meals, we use tomatoes, peppers, peas, spinach, summer squash, pears, we make raisins some years, we let the kids pick raspberries some years. We take out a basin of water and let kids pick their own spinach and peas and wash and eat it.

For the Winter, we have Winter squash stored, Long Keeper tomatoes, and dehydrated vegies.

The dck grew their own gardens this year too. It's one of our state's quality criteria.

Considering how many daycare meals we actually provide vegies and fruit for out of our own garden, 100 hours for the daycare portion of the labor is probably fairly realistic. But perhaps auditors need vegie gardening education. ???

Am I convincing at all?
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TomCopeland 01:28 PM 10-20-2017
Originally Posted by Leigh:
So, I have a garden for the kids. They plant, tend it, eat it/take it home. I have never considered claiming time that I spend on it outside of daycare! Would it be a good idea to do so? Would *I* claim 100% of that time, since the kids are the ones eating it? We really don't eat it ourselves, just because the kids devour everything on their own.
If you wouldn't be spending time in this garden if you weren't in business, and you aren't eating any of the food for your family, I'd count 100% of the time you spend on the garden when children are not present.
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Tags:gardening, gardening - veggie, vegetables
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