Any way to deduct these expenses in taxes?
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Tamara posted 2 years ago.
hmmm....deduct them as "misc. healthcare expenses"?
"Understand that this is not a dress rehearsal. This is it...your life. Face your fears and live your dreams. Take it all in." ~Jon Blais
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o2Ripper posted 2 years ago.
If you company's race fee's go towards a charitable organization, you can write them off as a donation, but only race fee's. As far as lodging, you can write them off as business travel (if it somehow related to business). Bike parts, gym membership, shoes, clothing are all personal withdrawals. I think quite possibly a gym membership MAY be written off as a health expense, but not 100 percent on it.
(Im not a CERTIFIED accountant, so my advice cannot be used as fact.)
-Branden
"Its an addiction"
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o2Ripper posted 2 years ago.
If its YOUR company, then its a whole other story. But from the sounds of it, its not.
-Branden
"Its an addiction"
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KenMierke posted 2 years ago.
Become a professional coach! Ken
Ken Mierke Ken@Fitness-Concepts.com
Fitness Concepts Fitness-Concepts.com
Author, The Triathlete's Guide to Run Training
www.EvolutionRunning.com
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thehitman posted 2 years ago.
deepbluex wrote:
I'm looking at a fairly big chunk of expenses for tris this year... gym membership, bike parts, shoes, clothing, equipment, entry fees, lodging, food...
Anyone know of a legitimate way to write these off?I'm not a pro so I don't derive income from tris, but I do compete in my company's team for charity... I wear the company jersey but I don't get paid for it.
:confused:
Uh, yeah, how do you write off your hobbies come tax time? - no problem. I don't suppose others would be interested in that gambit; or that the IRS isn't on the look-out. :eek:
There actually are ways to do it; although the feds might disagree in some (most?) cases. One example -- set up a business (triathlon/nutrition related,for example), and sell products at events (online,too). At the very least, you could deduct travel expenses for that. And sponsor a team for your business (you're the team captain, of course) for promotional purposes, and pay its expenses (bikes, uniforms, entry fees, etc.). Of course, you're going to make a profit. Right? Because if you lose money every year, the IRS is probably gonna come a knockin', and you'll have to call thehitman and pay big $$$, to try to make your problem go away.
Did I mention setting up a 503(c) nonprofit corporation, perhaps with the purpose of promoting health, not to mention peace and harmony in the world, though participation in endurance sports events? That, too. And there are other creative methods.
Not easy, but it can be done. Or join Team in Training, if you don't mind the fundraising and the ugly outfits. http://www.teamintraining.org/hm_tnt
thehitman, Esq.
Standard Disclaimer: Don't listen to me until you pay me some $$$.
thehitman
“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Mark Twain
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bigdogtwo posted 2 years ago.
Personal expenses cannot be deducted (with a few exceptions).
If you intend to make money by doing triathlons (ie by being a pro) you can deduct expenses. But, there are hobby loss rules that limit your expenses to your triathlon revenues if you fail to earn a profit in at least 2 of 5 years. So, if you are placing very high in your age group and are earning amateur prize money and do whatever you need to do to turn pro it may be ok to deduct expenses. If you fail to make a profit after 3 years you may run into problems though.
The charitable angle that thehitman suggests likely won't work. In order to set up a charity you have to get it approved by the IRS by submitting a rather large cumbersome application (form 1023). For the IRS to approve your charity it must be organized as a charity (not too hard) and then must be operated as a charity for charitable purposes. This generally means that it must benefit a large number of people or an exisiting public charity. Anyway, I have a decent amount of experience setting up private foundations and it is a pretty high hurdle, there is a lot of administration and regulation and it must actually be for charitable purposes. There are also self-dealing rules that would keep you from gaining any sort of personal benefit from the charity. So having it pay for your races won't work. Also the IRS has really cracked down on abuses relating to charitable entities in the last few years.
Unfortunately, when you do something personal like do triathlons for fun you can't deduct the expenses.
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thehitman posted 2 years ago.
There's no such thing as a free lunch
bigdogtwo,
My tongue was firmly planted in cheek when I wrote my post.
Perhaps I should have written a more lawyerly response:
Send me a $10,000 retainer, and I'll get right on it. :rolleyes:
The fact that Team in Training has many triathletes traveling to compete in Hawaii, Florida, and elsewhere, gratis, shows that it can be done. The triathletes get freebies, including travel, and the charity makes money for leukemia research. I don't know whether the head honchos of that organization make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year --- they're not as big as the Red Cross, United Way, and other charitable organizations that pay such obscene salaries. I'll bet they travel around the country/world, though; and if they compete, I'm sure its smiles all around.
thehitman
“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Mark Twain
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I'm looking at a fairly big chunk of expenses for tris this year... gym membership, bike parts, shoes, clothing, equipment, entry fees, lodging, food...
Anyone know of a legitimate way to write these off?
I'm not a pro so I don't derive income from tris, but I do compete in my company's team for charity... I wear the company jersey but I don't get paid for it.
:confused: