Hey Scout
I hope you are banking a good part of your part-time earnings, You
will need it if you get audited. One of the tests for a home office
deduction is that the space is not used for anything else. I doubt that
your kitchen table would pass that one.
JR

Scout wrote:
"Bob Crantz" wrote

Sounds like you have a good set up.
Don't make a full deduction for the home office, it will raise IRS flags,
especially if you don't have a space solely dedicated to the work. Another
IRS test is how much of your income, percentage wise, comes from your home
business? Do deduct for electricity, heat, travel, flowers, food, etc.


Yes, I use a factor of 15% for home and utility costs. Since it's part time,
I don't want to push it too hard.


The best thing about your situation is that you are not involved in the
day
to day soap opera at the office. You do your work, you're done. Office
politics and shennigans can ruin otherwise great work. You don't have to
deal with people's personality disorders 8+ hours a day. Stay at home.


AMEN! I love that and working in my underwear. Of course, asa fills my need
for daily distraction and drama.



Those engineer stamps are a liability firewall, and to a lesser degree,
customer sign offs. Autocad is fine for those type of schematics, you
aren't
fabricating any circuit boards or the like from them.

Yes, there are faster programs out there, but the contractor has supplied me
with AutoCAD 2000 and asked me to use it. Previously, we've used Drafix,
Designer 3.x and 4, AutoCAD Lt, and an MS product whose name has slipped my
mind.


Sounds like you work all the time. What do you do for fun? Does the steam
plant have a Hagan Control board? Like Doug, I once worked in a 1350 psi
steam plant. Two boilers, D type. I spend my spare time fantasizing aboutr
Katysails.

The boiler room is small. 4 low pressure (100 psig) fire tubes (3 Superiors
and 1 Power-Master), each 350 HP; and 2,000 tons in centrifugal chillers.
Nothing fancy. But we take good care of them and they still look new when we
open them up every year (they were built in 1953). Same year as Katy?