Kalman Rubinson wrote in message
. ..
On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 07:00:00 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:
I know of at least one reviewer who would probably pay a substantial fee to
be a "paid reviewer". If he gets paid to review audio gear, all of his
stereo system equipment purchases for the year become business expenses. He
can then deduct their total, up to about $17 K a year from gross income
(don't know if this is the current number, but order-of-magnitude), as
capital improvement expenses.

I wish you were correct. One can deduct purchased equipment as a
business expense against the income from that business, not from all
income. Thus, if your only audio-related income is $1000, you can
deduct no more than that, regardless of your expenditures.

It's actually worse than that Kal, as according to the accountant who
does my taxes, your income from the business has to be sufficiently high
that the IRS is convinced it _is_ a business, not a hobby. If the latter,
you can't deduct _any_ purchases related to the venture. :-(

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile




Kal