Schedule C Deductions Small Businesses Commonly Miss

Most missed deductions aren't exotic. They're ordinary expenses that never made it into the books, paid on the wrong card, receipt lost, forgotten by tax time. The fix is boring: record everything, all year. Here's what commonly slips through.

The classics people still miss

• Software and subscriptions: the $12/month tools add up to real money across a year. If it serves the business, it counts.
• Business use of your phone and internet: the business-use percentage is deductible; estimate it honestly and consistently.
• Home office: if a space is used regularly and exclusively for business, the simplified method ($5/sq ft up to 300 sq ft) makes this painless.
• Mileage: business driving beyond commuting, at the IRS standard rate. The requirement is a contemporaneous log, not December guesswork.
• Professional services: your accountant, lawyer, and even bookkeeping software fees are themselves deductible.
• Continuing education: courses, books, and conferences that maintain or improve skills in your existing business.
• Bank and payment fees: account fees, wire charges, and the processing cut Stripe or PayPal takes from every sale.
• Business insurance premiums, and self-employed health insurance (an adjustment, but tracked the same way).

Where people get burned

Meals are 50% deductible when there's a business purpose, document who and why. Entertainment (tickets, golf) is generally not deductible at all, a rule that changed in 2018 and still trips people up.

Mixed-use purchases need a defensible business percentage. A laptop used 80% for work is an 80% deduction, but 'defensible' means you decided the percentage before the audit, not during it.

The system that captures all of it

Deductions are found in January only if they were recorded in June. Three habits do the work: run business spending through business accounts, photograph receipts the day you get them, and categorize with rules so nothing sits unfiled. Then year-end is an export, not an excavation.

This article is education, not tax advice, bring your specific situation to a CPA or enrolled agent.