“I Use It for Business” Doesn’t Automatically Make It Deductible

“If I use it for business, I can write it off.” Not exactly. Before you start tagging everything in QuickBooks as “business expense,” here’s the test the IRS actually cares about. Under IRC §162, a business expense generally has to be ordinary and necessary. Those two words do a lot of work. Ordinary does not mean cheap An ordinary expense is common and accepted in your line of business. For a real estate agent, that looks like: MLS fees Lockboxes Professional photography CRM software...