You can't beat the tax man

When I first signed up for airbnb they did not ask me for my SSN. It didn't occur to me that I would have to pay tax on the money I was making. Stupid I know. Then in December they sent me a request for my SSN so they could send me tax documents, I was like "oh no". (Actually my language was a little more corolful than that.)

I had made just over $7,000 and I hadn't been keeping track of my expenses. I had to dig through receipts, to pull it together, to be able to do my taxes.

The next year I made just under $24,000 on airbnb. I had tracked everything. I still had to pay taxes on the money, but a lot less tax than I would have had to pay if I had not been tracking every penny I spent.

There are lots of things you can write off when using your home for a business.

You can write off part of:

• Your mortgage
• Your utilities
• Any supplies you buy: Including things like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, coffee (anything that you need to keep your house going or things that you are offering to your guests)
• Laundry costs
• Furniture
• Towels
• Sheets
• Work that you have done on the house or yard
• Tools that you buy to make repairs on your house or yard
• Gas for your car so you can buy things for your bnb Ect ect ect.

Of course i'm not a tax person, and you should consult with a tax person when taking write offs. I certainly do. I think taxes have been purposely too hard for normal people to do them. The tax laws change so much that it takes a professional to keep up on them. But that is a rant for another day.