To be honest, I have been at a lost as to the value of social networks to a lawyer and your marketing efforts. Kevin O’Keefe had the following post on his blog this evening. Take a look.
At a loss as to value of social networks to you? Take a look at this video, ‘Social networks in plain English’ from CommonCraft.
Source for post: Kate Daisley at ALM and Real Lawyers :: Have Blogs.
Guest Blogger: Susan Cartier Liebel, Build A Solo Practice, LLC
First, let me say I am not an accountant and do not play one in the blogosphere. But it is important to emphasize the tremendous cost savings associated with having a home office that seldom get discussed. And those benefits have to do with the tax advantages.
Millions of Americans are now working from their home, either operating their own independent business or telecommuting. And with this benefit (besides not having to pay the high cost of gasoline, commuting numerous hours per week or contributing to global warming!) there are significant tax deductions one can be eligible to take. But it isn’t just the deductions to look at, because if you were renting an office space you could deduct this, too. It is the fact that you are already paying for your home or apartment, this money is already leaving your wallet. Now you are getting more bang for those bucks. You are getting benefits for what you already spend, not having to earn more for a rental space to then get the deduction.
But before you can enjoy these benefits you have to realize the IRS is no longer the enemy of the home office lawyer. Most people fear the deduction because they assume that it is a red flag for the dreaded audit. The reality is (and this comes from a friend who has worked for the IRS for years) only one half of one percent of filers is audited. This number may have inched up recently due to other factors, but it is still minuscule. The IRS does not use a home office deduction as an automatic trigger to audit.
What are the rules to follow if you decide to create a home office based law firm? If you are ever the subject of an audit you should take photographs of your working space that you are declaring. This will show the purpose of the room. Is it being used solely as an office? Is there a partition in the room clearly separating your work space from the other functions of the room?
The Connecticut Society of CPAs provides the following criteria to determine if your ‘space’ qualifies under the rules for a business deduction: ( I cannot provide the link as there is none.)
(Paraphrased)
Test No. 1: Regular and exclusive use.
To qualify for the home office deduction, you must use your home office regularly and exclusively for business. "Regularly" means that you us it often, not necessarily every day. However, occasional or incidental use doesn’t qualify, even if the room is used solely for business. "Exclusively" means that you must use the space you designate as your home office for work only.
Test No. 2: Principal place of business.
Your office also must be used either as a place to meet with clients in the normal course of business, or as your principal place of business. Your office will qualify if you spend most of your working hours there and most of your business income is attributable to your functions there such as calling clients, billing clients, keeping records, calling vendors, etc.
Determining what is deductible.
When you work from a home office space that qualifies under the rules you are eligible to fully deduct all expenses associated with your home office including equipment, decorations and supplies. In addition, you can deduct a percentage of indirect expenses such as mortgage interest, property taxes, utilities, homeowner’s insurance, maintenance, repairs and depreciation. The amount you may deduct all turns on the percentage of square footage: if 10% of your home square footage is home office; you can deduct 10% of allowable expenses.
If you are into cutting overhead and maximizing dollars you already spend to live in your dwelling this is a very viable option IF other circumstances in your life make it suitable as well.
Considering a home office requires thoughtfulness. It has to work with all your objectives, not just financial. It may be for a short period of time or it may be a permanent working strategy. But it must work with your personality and your needs first in order for it to be the right choice for you.
Again, always consult an accountant for the most relevant tax advice to your unique situation.
Regular readers of this blog know Grant Griffiths, the Home Office Lawyer. Grant is the blog-king as far as I’m concerned, pulling in family law clients left-and-right with his Kansas Family Law Blog.
Now, Grant’s got another iron in the fire. And it’s a doozy.
Grant is in the beginning stages of creating a program that will walk lawyers through the process of creating, launching, marketing and maintaining a blog from its birth to its continued growth.
Grant will be bringing his own experiences to the creation of this program, which will be offering several FREE resources to help those of you who are ready to take the plunge and launch your own blog.
Stay tuned!
Solo lawyers (and the rest of the world for that matter) know about Skype and/or VOIP for making cheap, good quality calls, reducing overhead and changing the way professional service is delivered.
Well, it’s time I turned up the heat on this whole “leveraging technology” concept. Let’s see how much juice I can squeeze out of a dime.
I’m about to enter the hairy little world of Asterisk, a Linux based PBX system which is open source, feature rich and well, FREE. Actually, I’m taking the “easier” route by creating a Trixbox server (or perhaps a 3cx Server).
I admit it – I suffer from prospective iPhone envy. My iPod is about two years old now, and sitting in my son’s room playing Norah Jones to put him to sleep every night (did you know that Norah is apparently very big with the parent set, putting infants to sleep all over America?). My Blackberry is one neat phone, but just screams, “Geek!”
Now along comes this slick little beauty that will let me make phone calls (check out the cool little color buttons!), listen to music and watch movies (I still can’t figure out why people watch movies or TV shows on their mobile devices). Plus, all the cool kids are gonna have ‘em. Long lines at the Apple store on the night of June 28 (you dare to doubt me?).
The only thing I’ve been holding out for, repeating for days and weeks, is that the iPhone will probably have a cruddy battery life like the first iPods. The case will scratch like the Nano. Anything I could think of to avoid shelling out $600 for a phone.
A phone, I tell you! The same device I used to consider a means for placing a (gasp!) phone call and nothing more. A telecommunications tool, something to let me talk with someone else.
$600. Insanity. But I want one.
Oh my oh my, do I ever want one. And now Apple has come out with revised specs that indicate an 8 hour battery life and an improved screen to minimize scratching.
If you want me on June 28 and 29, I’ll either be on line at the Apple store or strapped to my chair so I can’t get there.
The move was yesterday, and it went pretty well. OK, maybe not a total breeze but it went as well as could be expected. The movers came and loaded my stuff into the truck and sped off into the distance, leaving the skyscrapers of Manhattan behind for the bucolic tree-lined streets of Brooklyn and the grand old Victorian where I now maintain my virtual office.
The landlord maintains a strong DSL connection that goes completely unused during the day, and he has graciously allowed me to use this bandwidth at no charge. That saves me money on Internet access, and also on a phone line.
So how do I make and received calls? Skype, of course. I’m using the Belkin Wi-Fi Phone for Skype, which allows me to do all things telephonic without the need for a computer. I decided on the standalone wi-fi phone because I’ve often experienced problems with Skype when running too many applications on my computer; this nifty little handset won’t have those problems because there’s nothing else to use up the on-board memory.
The phone also lets me use Skype whenever I’m in range of a wi-fi signal. That means I can take the Skype phone home, to the “office”, or to any number of other places. If I’m out of range I forward Skype to my cell phone, but I’m not enamored of using a cell phone as a business line because one never knows when a signal will unexpectedly cut out.
The only problematic aspect of the phone thing is the fact that I still have my old office line to contend with. If I have Verizon forward the line permanently they will charge something like $50 a month, which is just about what I’m paying for the line now. So ultimately what I’ll do is move that number to Vonage or another VOIP provider, then forward the line to the new Skype number. I wish Skype would transfer the number for me, but I guess nothing’s perfect.
Today’s goal is to buy an air conditioner for the “office” and confirm the desk delivery for tomorrow. Then I’ve got to continue unpacking and figure out what the heck’s in all those boxes!
This isn’t a breaking story, but a tool that everyone should know about.
Rememberthemilk.com is a task or to-do list which can help you organize your neverending list of things to do! [Read more...]
EasyTime v.1.62 is now available from versiontracker.
What’s new in this version:
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When I'm not working with other lawyers, I'm out there helping people in the fields of consumer bankruptcy, debt collection abuse, and credit reporting errors. [Read More …]
