You built it from the kitchen table.
We handle the boring math.

Accounting for a business run from home

A home business has one problem a shop does not: the line between personal money and business money is invisible unless you draw it. Everything below is about drawing it clearly enough to survive a tax return.

Separate the money first

A dedicated business account is the cheapest bookkeeping decision you will ever make. It does not need to be a fancy business account — it needs to be the only account business income lands in and business costs leave from. Every hour you later spend sorting a mixed statement is an hour this would have saved.

Pay yourself by transferring from that account to your personal one. That transfer is an owner draw, not an expense, and keeping it visible stops you double-counting your own pay as a business cost.

The home office deduction, honestly

If part of your home is used regularly and exclusively for the business, that share of rent or mortgage interest, utilities, insurance and repairs can be deductible. The simplified method claims a flat rate per square foot up to a limit; the regular method apportions actual costs by the percentage of your home the space occupies.

Exclusive is the word people trip on. A spare room used only for work qualifies; the kitchen table you also eat at does not. Measure the space, write down the calculation, and keep it with the return — the deduction is legitimate and worth taking, but only when it is real.

Mixed-use costs need a split

Phone, internet, a laptop used for both work and family, a car used for errands and deliveries: each needs a defensible business percentage rather than a claim of one hundred percent. Estimate it once from a representative period, record how you arrived at it, and apply it consistently.

Equipment over a certain cost is treated as an asset that depreciates rather than an expense written off in one year, though Section 179 and bonus depreciation often let you take it immediately. Recording the purchase properly at the time is what makes that choice available later.

Quarterly taxes and records to keep

Self-employment income has no withholding, so the IRS expects estimated payments four times a year. Setting aside a percentage of each payment as it arrives is far easier than finding a lump sum on a deadline, and it avoids underpayment penalties.

Keep receipts, invoices, bank statements and your mileage log for the period the IRS can examine — generally three years from filing, longer in some circumstances. Photos of receipts attached to the entry they belong to are accepted, easier to search, and do not fade like thermal paper.