Comment by illumin8 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by illumin8 | Hacker News Reader

No income means no taxes, however, here are a few things to keep in mind:

- If you received any 1099s for contracting work, or W-2s for hourly work, the IRS also got copies of them, so they know what you made. - If you did receive any W-2s, chances are your employer also withheld income so by not filing, you're losing some money you would have gotten if you filed.

It's too bad you don't have any income, because if you did, you could write off all kinds of startup expenses as a business expense. Computers, a dedicated office in your house, a percentage of utilities and rent (sq. foot of office/total sq. foot of house), marketing expenses, books, tools, etc.

I highly recommend that you take advantage of all of these deductions when your startup starts to make money. Even TurboTax can walk you through them all; you don't need an accountant.

How does he write off expenses if he has no income?

Not sure why the downvote, this is an honest question. What is the purpose of writing things off when you have no income, or so little income that you have no tax liability or the alternative minimum tax is enough to give you no liability?

I think the idea is that he is wasting the opportunity to make some tax free income. Any work that he could have done for X amount of dollars would have been compensated at full rate instead of market rate minus tax liability, given X does not exceed his deductible expenses.

AFAIK, the alternative minimum tax applies to high incomes. Maybe you were referring to wages below the standard deduction?

He doesn't: It's too bad you don't have any income, because if you did, you could write off all kinds of startup expenses as a business expense. (emphasis added)

Doh! I feel stupid now, I was keying off the last sentence. Thanks for stepping down to my current mental level :)

Can't you carry forward losses into future years?

If you can demonstrate that your business is in fact a business and not a hobby. This isn't too difficult if it is, in fact, a business: you prove it was conducted in a businesslike fashion (or just make a profit on it next year).

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