Posted by Urbie Watrous on January 27, 2004 at 17:49:43:
In Reply to: Writing off a new horn posted by Poor Student on January 26, 2004 at 21:01:46:
Don't worry about the standard deduction -- the issue (I'm not a CPA, just an accounting student) is how much Schedule C income (read: freelance income) you have. If you play a lot of gigs, you can write the horn off against your gig income. If you don't, you might still be able to, or you might not.
In any case, though, do not do it without consulting a tax pro -- preferably a CPA, but someone like H & R Block will do it, too (and they're fairly cheap).
But yeah, you often can deduct a horn -- I expensed a trombone awhile back. But I had a few grand in musical income that year. If you don't show a positive income in 3 out of 5 years, the IRS deems music a "hobby" (don't shoot me -- it's their word, not mine) and will disallow your deductions if you're audited.
But get some tax advice from a pro. You wouldn't leave your tuba parts to an amateur -- so you shouldn't leave your taxes to one, either! :-D
Urb