Deducting Collectibles on Taxes

Collector Freaks Forum

Help Support Collector Freaks Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

HDGuy84

Super Freak
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Messages
1,575
Reaction score
6
So the accountant at work brought up something interesting.

Like me he maintains a home office that meets all eligibility of the home office tax deduction.

So he told me last year he wrote off three Prime 1 Studio statues and a XM Studios statue as "home office decor." I was shocked by this, but he showed me his return and (painfully lol) explained that people write off art they hang on the wall and other stuff, so why would there be a distinction between that and what we, as a community, consider art?

Wanted to get some of your thoughts on this. He took it off as a depreciation, not a straight deduction, except one of the Prime 1 Studio pieces. He has done this for three years and consulted with his uncle (IRS auditor).

Any idea fellow collectors?
 
You can write off anything and get away with it until they audit you. It's all about risk. I know people that write off $1000s in dry cleaning they don't do, business expenses they don't have. Its pretty much gambling, if they don't audit, you win. If they do you lose big time. Even with legit writeoffs I take the approach if it's something they requires lots of documentation and it only nets me a few bucks back I just leave it off. We had that with business mileage one year as my work paid less than the Feds so I could write off the difference but it would have got me like $10 more. I left it off as it would require so much more proof.
 
So the accountant at work brought up something interesting.

Like me he maintains a home office that meets all eligibility of the home office tax deduction.

So he told me last year he wrote off three Prime 1 Studio statues and a XM Studios statue as "home office decor." I was shocked by this, but he showed me his return and (painfully lol) explained that people write off art they hang on the wall and other stuff, so why would there be a distinction between that and what we, as a community, consider art?

Wanted to get some of your thoughts on this. He took it off as a depreciation, not a straight deduction, except one of the Prime 1 Studio pieces. He has done this for three years and consulted with his uncle (IRS auditor).

Any idea fellow collectors?

Not worth the audits and fines
 
This is very common with business owners, just don't go selling the statues the next day on ebay.
 
This is a routinely allowable §179 expense. Artwork cannot be capitalized, and thus depreciated. So either this person filed in error or they must have meant that they were depreciating their home office apart from any artwork in general.

On a philosophical-professional level, unless you have clients into your home, and thus have a bona fide reason to present a particular image, I think the notion of non-functional decoration as a business expense is asinine.
 
I'm a tax attorney. If you get audited, they'll burn you to the ground. If not, nobody will know the difference. It's technically not deductible, though. Not a business expense, and extravagant home office decor isn't going to fly if scrutinized.

SnakeDoc
 
Back
Top