It’s that time of year again — time to pull out the documents you haven’t seen in a few months and call up your tax advisor. With the average tax rate being 24.8% in 2022, many of us are looking for ways to lighten the financial burden.

Let’s flip the script on the ever-dreaded tax season by making it work in our favor. There are plenty of deductions to go around. Take advantage of deductions by considering what you spent your money on and why. If you have implemented a home office, incurred babysitter fees, started up a company, bought work uniforms or even experienced expenses due to education, you may qualify for a deduction.

Home office

Have you created a home office to work in? If you have, you’re in luck; you may be able to write off your expenses. There are some strict stipulations that revolve around a home office to be considered for a write-off. First, you’ll need to ensure you only use this space in your house for work. Doubling up on how you use this space or if it is not the primary spot where you work will disqualify it as a home office.

Furthermore, in most states, this deduction does not include employees. If you are a business owner or self-employed, it is wise to keep track of your home office expenses to deduct them from your taxes.

Babysitter

Child care has become extremely popular and with that comes financial expenses. As long as your child qualifies for care, you can include it as a deduction from your taxes, saving you 35% on $3,000 per dependent or $6,000 for two or more dependents if both working parents’ income is lower than $43,000. If the parents make over $43,000 combined, then 20% can be saved on $600 for one dependent or $1,200 for two or more dependents.

A child under the age of 13 or a disabled dependent of any age can qualify for care if both parents worked for at least part of the year or are students. This tax benefit makes it practical for parents to employ babysitters.

Startups

Did you begin the exciting adventure of starting up a business? As you may know by now, starting up a new company is no easy task, and it can require a large financial investment. To reduce the economic hardship, there is a deduction you can utilize when filing your taxes. This will deduct $5,000 on expenses under $50,000. If there is an item that was over $5,000, you will need to write this off throughout a 15-year course.

Work uniform

Do you have a required uniform that you have to wear for work? If you spend more than 2% of your adjusted income on the uniform, you can qualify for a deduction. These clothes cannot be worn outside of work or they will be disqualified.

Educator

If you are a teacher, counselor, principal or aide for grades K-12 and work at least 900 hours every school year, you may qualify for a tax deduction of up to $300. Books, computers, materials and cleaning supplies that are used in the classroom and have not been reimbursed qualify for the educator tax deduction. Remember to keep receipts so they can be submitted when you file your taxes.

You may be incurring unnecessary expenses. Understanding when you can file for a deduction is important to overall financial wellness. If you have a home office, a babysitter, a new company, work uniforms or classroom supply costs, you may be able to take advantage of tax deductions.

Lindsey Certonio is a project manager at Fullcast, a Silicon Slopes-based, end-to-end RevOps platform that allows companies to design, manage and track the performance of their revenue-generating teams.

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