Daycare.com Forum
Daycare and Taxes>For Tom: Highlighter Ruined My Receipts!
legomom922 05:44 AM 02-08-2011
I pulled out my reciepts last night to start/finish entering them into MMK because I am sooo far behind, and I was shocked as to what I had found!
I had highlighted daycare items withy a yellow highlighter, and the acid or whatever from the highlighter, totaly wiped out the words, the amount etc on each line that I had highlighted!! It looks like there is nothing at all under the highlighted parts!!
I am so upset! what do I do?? I cant even make copies of the reciepts the way they are now or even enter items into MMK. So does this mean I cannot claim all of my purchases for the yr???? If I were to be audited, they would laugh at me!
Suggestions?
I had highlighted daycare items withy a yellow highlighter, and the acid or whatever from the highlighter, totaly wiped out the words, the amount etc on each line that I had highlighted!! It looks like there is nothing at all under the highlighted parts!!
I am so upset! what do I do?? I cant even make copies of the reciepts the way they are now or even enter items into MMK. So does this mean I cannot claim all of my purchases for the yr???? If I were to be audited, they would laugh at me!
Suggestions?
Little People 06:04 AM 02-08-2011
I hope Tom has an answer for you. That would be horrible if you could not use any of your reciepts!
Blackcat31 06:38 AM 02-08-2011
Sam's Club does this to my receipts too when I walk out of the store...I try to ask them to mark in a different area...most are nice but some roll their eyes like it is sooo much to ask. I found out that highlighters ruin my receipts the hard way too! Sorry that happened Legomom....hopefully TOm will be able to help.. Was it alot of them?
DCMomOf3 06:45 AM 02-08-2011
That happened to me last year. I was luckily able to make out most of my items though. This year I have been putting ink dots next to the items instead of highlighting the whole line.
I hope there is a way for you to still use your receipts!
I hope there is a way for you to still use your receipts!
marniewon 06:52 AM 02-08-2011
I noticed the highlighters turned out darker the more they sat. I just, last month, went through ALL of my receipts and highlighted them. Only a few weeks later I separated all the highlighted items on a spreadsheet and noticed they were getting darker. I guess this is one instance where procrastination was a good thing!!
DCMomof3 has a great idea for this year's receipts! I'm glad I've been too busy with taxes to do any highlighting of this year's receipts.
I hope Tom has some advice for you so you can still claim all that you purchased!
DCMomof3 has a great idea for this year's receipts! I'm glad I've been too busy with taxes to do any highlighting of this year's receipts.
I hope Tom has some advice for you so you can still claim all that you purchased!
legomom922 09:27 AM 02-08-2011
99% of my reciepts are now unreadable............
cillybean83 01:45 PM 02-08-2011
omg....that is terrible. I don't know what I would do!
I hope Tom can help
I hope Tom can help
TomCopeland 03:52 PM 02-08-2011
This is not uncommon. Tax laws say you can deduct expenses if you have "adequate" records, not receipts. So, don't give up. Look to see if you have cancelled checks, debit/credit card statements that can help you reconstruct what you spent. Take pictures of the items you bought (if you still have them). Compare what you spent against last year or so far this year. In the end, do your best to estimate your expenses and claim them. Save the ruined receipts. If you do get audited you can use your 2009 and 2011 records to help justify what you spent in 2010.
Abigail 11:42 PM 02-08-2011
If you only had one item highlighted per receipt, at least you could subtract all the other items from the total to find the actual cost of the item. This is probably unlikely to help since I'm sure you have multiple items on a receipt.
I did this as well, but thankfully they were not important receipts. DON'T try the "hairspray will preserve receipts" route either. It DOES NOT WORK! I tried this also and it just made the ink from the receipt instantly splatter onto the counter and across the paper and blend everything together...that was with two small sprays. I am going to be putting a colored dot next to the item AND scan my receipts into the computer, but still hang onto them in an envelope. Make sure to keep them out of the sun too and don't "squish" receipts because I do think that makes them fade/blend/stick together easier. Yup, Sams Club and Black Friday shopping with using the highlighters upon exiting Drive Me Nuts....I bought it 20 feet away....can't they watch instead? Geez. LOL
I did this as well, but thankfully they were not important receipts. DON'T try the "hairspray will preserve receipts" route either. It DOES NOT WORK! I tried this also and it just made the ink from the receipt instantly splatter onto the counter and across the paper and blend everything together...that was with two small sprays. I am going to be putting a colored dot next to the item AND scan my receipts into the computer, but still hang onto them in an envelope. Make sure to keep them out of the sun too and don't "squish" receipts because I do think that makes them fade/blend/stick together easier. Yup, Sams Club and Black Friday shopping with using the highlighters upon exiting Drive Me Nuts....I bought it 20 feet away....can't they watch instead? Geez. LOL
legomom922 04:31 AM 02-09-2011
Originally Posted by TomCopeland:
This is not uncommon. Tax laws say you can deduct expenses if you have "adequate" records, not receipts. So, don't give up. Look to see if you have cancelled checks, debit/credit card statements that can help you reconstruct what you spent. Take pictures of the items you bought (if you still have them). Compare what you spent against last year or so far this year. In the end, do your best to estimate your expenses and claim them. Save the ruined receipts. If you do get audited you can use your 2009 and 2011 records to help justify what you spent in 2010.
I wasn't in business in 2009. I only started in June 2010, and now other than having my one dcg PT 2 days a wk, I am pretty much "out of business" with no plans to get into it again, so I recently sold all of my DC stuff through CL over the last 2 wks. I have almost gotten back about $800. So I also wont have hardly any expenses to show for 2011 except for Clorox wipes or new cups. LOLThis is not uncommon. Tax laws say you can deduct expenses if you have "adequate" records, not receipts. So, don't give up. Look to see if you have cancelled checks, debit/credit card statements that can help you reconstruct what you spent. Take pictures of the items you bought (if you still have them). Compare what you spent against last year or so far this year. In the end, do your best to estimate your expenses and claim them. Save the ruined receipts. If you do get audited you can use your 2009 and 2011 records to help justify what you spent in 2010.
So I don't know how those facts would play into this???
Secondly, I never uses cks anymore, so I wont have any of those and I do have a my bank statements showing all of my debit card transcations, but like someone else mention, there were several items on my reciepts that were for DC, so the total from my bank statements wont be a true reflection of what I spent on DC.
Someone mentioned to try to guess what the costs were by what is left from teh personnal, but I dont even know what the items were since I highlighted the whole line..... I can guess to the best of my knowledge, and I can see what things cost what in Walmart. I hdo have a few reciepts that I used a blue highlighter, and those are fine. Its the yellow that damaged them.
I do have some pics from the stuff I sold on CL.
Does the IRS need to know I have sold my items? If they were to come here, they wont find any of my stuff her anymore...
TomCopeland 09:18 AM 02-09-2011
If you deduct on your tax return the stuff you later sold on CL, then you are supposed to report as income the $800 you received. However, the IRS rarely looks as stuff providers sell (garage sales, CL, etc.) so I wouldn't worry about this, especially since you are not going to continue doing child care.
You can still claim your house related expenses (property tax, mortgage interest, house insurance, house repairs, utilities, house depreciation), as well as mileage. You can use the standard meal allowance to claim food expenses without food receipts.
Do your best to estimate the rest of your expenses.
Join me for a webinar February 28 - "How to Reduce Your Taxes for 2010 and 2011" - https://www.daycare.com/news/taxes/t...d-webinar.html
You can still claim your house related expenses (property tax, mortgage interest, house insurance, house repairs, utilities, house depreciation), as well as mileage. You can use the standard meal allowance to claim food expenses without food receipts.
Do your best to estimate the rest of your expenses.
Join me for a webinar February 28 - "How to Reduce Your Taxes for 2010 and 2011" - https://www.daycare.com/news/taxes/t...d-webinar.html