By trade
What your industry deducts — and what it gets wrong
Every trade has a list of expenses it runs on, and that part is not a secret. Your bookkeeper has the list. Software has the list. Putting it on a website does not make us useful to you.
So each guide below carries the list, and then the thing that trade actually gets wrong — the method, the classification or the filing that quietly costs money and does not show up as an error anywhere. That part is why somebody picks up the phone.
Pick the one that sounds like you
Construction and the trades
General contractors, subs, electricians, plumbers, mechanical, roofing, and anyone billing by the job.
Your profit is probably not where your books say it is
Restaurants and food service
Full service, counter service, bars, food trucks, caterers, and anyone whose cost of sales walks out the back door.
The FICA tip credit is money sitting on the table
Property management and real estate
Landlords, property managers, associations, brokers, and anyone holding Florida real estate in an entity.
Repair or improvement is the whole game, and the answer is not obvious
Dealers and vehicle sales
Auto, motorcycle, powersports, marine and equipment dealers — anyone carrying titled inventory.
Units with no cost in the system quietly become profit
Freight, logistics and distribution
Carriers, owner-operators, freight forwarders, customs brokers, warehousing and last-mile.
Per diem and owner-operator classification, in that order
Professional practices
Medical and dental practices, law firms, architects, engineers, agencies and consultancies.
Your salary is the most examined number on your return
Retail and wholesale
Storefronts, e-commerce, marketplace sellers, importers and distributors.
Selling into other states creates obligations you will not be told about
Nonprofits
501(c)(3) organizations, foundations, associations and anyone filing a 990.
Functional allocation is not a formatting exercise
No limit, threshold or rate appears on these pages, on purpose. Those move every year and a stale number under an accounting firm's name is worse than no number at all. Anything with a date on it lives in the Tax Center, where every entry carries its source and the day we checked it. If your situation needs a figure, call us and we will give you the current one.
Put your name down
One email a month. Written by us, about the things that actually moved — not a roundup of somebody else's headlines.
Not sure which of these is you?
Call and a person picks up. Send a note and a person reads it. Either way it reaches somebody at the firm, not a queue.