If you’ve recently started a business – or are thinking about starting a business – you should know that as an owner, all eligible costs incurred before beginning to operate the business are treated as capital expenditures. As such, they are part of the cost basis for the business.
Generally, the business can recover costs for assets through depreciation deductions. Businesses with costs paid or incurred after September 8, 2008, can deduct a limited amount of start-up and organizational costs. This enables business owners to recover the costs they cannot deduct currently over a 180-month period. This recovery period starts with the month the business begins to operate active trade or as a business.
Business Start-up Costs
Start-up costs are amounts the business paid or incurred for creating an active trade or business, or investigating the creation or acquisition of an active trade or business. Start-up costs include amounts paid or incurred in connection with an existing activity engaged in for profit, and to produce income in anticipation of the activity becoming an active trade or business.
Examples of start-up costs include amounts paid for the following:
Qualifying Costs
A start-up cost is recoverable if it meets both of the following requirements:
Nonqualifying Costs
Start-up costs don’t include deductible interest, taxes, or research and experimental costs.
Purchasing an Active Trade or Business
Recoverable start-up costs for purchasing an active trade or business include only investigative costs incurred during a general search for or preliminary investigation of the business. These are costs that help in deciding whether to purchase a business. Costs incurred to purchase a specific business are capital expenses that can’t be amortized.
Disposition of Business
If you completely dispose of your business before the end of the amortization period, you can deduct any remaining deferred start-up costs. However, you can deduct these deferred start-up costs only to the extent they qualify as a loss from a business.
Questions about deducting startup costs for your small business? Help is just a phone call away.
Any accounting, business or tax advice contained in this communication, including attachments and enclosures, is not intended as a thorough, in-depth analysis of specific issues, nor a substitute for a formal opinion, nor is it sufficient to avoid tax-related penalties. If desired, we would be pleased to perform the requisite research and provide you with a detailed written analysis. Such an engagement may be the subject of a separate engagement letter that would define the scope and limits of the desired consultation services.