A wined and dined client is a loyal one, and a prospective customer wooed with food is likely to express his gratitude by placing an order.  Because of its proven profit potential, business entertainment has long been tax deductible. 

You don’t have to conduct business with a waitress hovering in the background, however.  The cost of entertaining in your home is equally deductible, but a few conditions apply:

You must have a business purpose for getting together.  But if your clients are also friends, you don’t have to treat them like strangers.  You can engage in small talk and exchange pleasantries as well as discuss business.

Food and drink must be served in an atmosphere conducive to a business discussion.  There should be no distractions. A party would hardly qualify.  Neither would a meeting in the family room with the television on and the children whizzing paper airplanes.

Limit the gathering to business guests.  This is not a hard-and-fast rule, but entertaining a group that includes  non business guests raises the presumption that the primary character of the entertainment was not business, but a ripping good time.

Before you hunt for the punch bowl, there is one limitation you should be aware of.  In many tax jurisdictions only 50% of business meals and entertainment is usually deductible.  So you may want to skip the  champagne and caviar.

Because a home is an informal setting, the Tax authorities tend to be sceptical about the business nature of home entertaining.  To back up your reasons for the deductions, be sure to buy food and drink you intend to serve to business guests separately from other groceries. 

Keep the supermarket receipt, and write the following five required items of information on it:

the date;

the place;

the amount spent;

the name of the person(s) entertained (use last names);

the business purpose of the entertainment or any business benefit gained.

You may also want to have business guests sign a guest book.

If you set aside a certain area of your home exclusively for entertaining clients or prospective clients, you may include that floor space in your home office calculation.

Note: Taxation legislation differs between countries and each country may change their rules at any time. The information provided in these newsletters is accurate at time of publication. You should however seek specific information from your Tax Advisor or Taxation Department as it relates to your own situation each year that you are required to provide Income and Expense Statements.

Other topics in this series are as follows:

Number 1, Record Keeping,

Number 2, General Expenses,

Number 3, Purchase of Goods for Resale,

Number 4, Deductions for use of Home,

Number 6, Motor Vehicle Expenses,

Number 7, Depreciation Costs,

Number 8, Business Meals,

Number 9, Salary Payments to Children,

Number 10, Travel Expenses,

Number 11, Demonstrators Samples & Promotional Tools,

Number 12, Gifts,

Number 13, Here Comes the Tax Man,

Number 14, Capital Items,

John Ritchie, A.I.B., A.I.C.B, F.I.C.B, email:brlynt@gmail.com

Copyright to this article belongs to John Ritchie. http://johnritchie.blogini.com. (Having Fun Making Money) Blog Site.

You may download and distribute this article freely and without restrictions. You must not, however, delete the resource box link.

While most all home buyers hope to find that perfect home which includes a beautiful fireplace, in many cases it just doesn’t happen. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t have a fireplace. Even if that new home doesn’t seem to have enough room you can always put in a corner fireplace. A corner fireplace design offers several advantages in homes without an existing fireplace or chimney.

1. If you are only looking for a cozy appearance of a nice fire, then a gel fueled fireplace is a good solution.

2. If you want a corner fireplace design that includes a wood burning unit then you can easily add on a chimney or vent to the unit.

3. A corner fireplace can take up less space than a bigger standard fireplace does.

Which areas of your home are a good fit for a corner fireplace design?

A corner fireplace can be ideal in any small room like a bedroom, but it works well in other rooms as well.

Let’s say that you have a room where your wall features or built-ins are taking up the space where a built-in fireplace should go. A corner fireplace design may be your only answer without doing major renovations.

There are so many ideas that you can come up with when it comes to finding the ideal spot for a corner fireplace.

You can also add a corner fireplace mantel to make a conversation piece as well.

To find more ideas on a corner fireplace design you can look at some of the many home design magazines or do some surfing online. You’re only limited by your imagination.

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Why An Online Home Based Business Is Great For Stay At Home Moms

Do you find it difficult to make a choice regarding an online home based business as a stay at home mom? If you are having a hard deciding if a business on the internet is for you, use the information in this article to help you decide.Visit to : http://work-at-home-cash.blogspot.com

1. The best thing about an online business for mom’s is you make your own salary by how much you work. There is always an unlimited income potential for you if you desire.

2. Being home for the children-Many mom’s have jobs. When kids are at day care and get sick you HAVE TO GET THEM.

Then you have to call your boss and tell them you are going to miss a few days which does not go over very well. Being home and working your home based business helps out your work schedule and if the children get sick you are there for them always.

3. The benefit to having a home based business is the time you will have with your family instead of your work. You will have the freedom to work anywhere in the world and have your children with you for quality family time. You will find many people are living at work and can never get home until after bedtime for the kids.

4. Long Driving Will Stop- Between rush hour and car accidents that is half your day. But when you do your home based business your commute is from your bedroom to your computer, how great is that!

5. Encouraging your children- Being a good influence for your kids is key. By being there and teaching what you know is very positive.

6. Opportunity for parents- Mom’s and children have the potential to stay at home together which is important. Helping other mom’s is very gratifying knowing that your home based business is under your control.

7. Be able to attend children’s events- I have gone to several of my children’s games. When I was working I would miss a lot of games because I had to work. My boss always needed to add an extra work load on me. That was the way it was. But now I am going to every event and spending time with my children.

8. Take time to play- With your own home based business you can go on vacation with your family any time. You work around your schedule. You can also run any errands you may have which always does come up.

9. Lifestyle of freedom- You can go all over the world and still have your job next to you so you can always make money but enjoy being with your family. There is always time for your hobbies that will keep you young.

10. Charitable organization- Now you will have time and money to help any charitable organization that you prefer which will show your children how you are helping the community and your self.

11. Working at home for yourselves- Financial freedom, time with your kids , independence to go on vacations. We all deserve to stop and smell the roses and still have income coming in.

An online home based business has many benefits. As you can see as a stay at home mom an internet based business can be perfect for you as well! keywords: online home based business, stay at home mom http://work-at-home-cash.blogspot.com

We all know how important it is to work hard to get your home business up and running and off the ground. We also know that when your home business is located right in your home, it is all too easy to get a few extra hours of work in after you eat dinner, or to get up early to work a little bit more in the morning.

However, the fact remains that most of the people who are working at home businesses have decided to do this so that they can control what hours they work, and so that they can have more time to themselves to do the things that they have always wanted to do. If you find yourself working too much, and you know that you are in danger of working longer hours than you did at your old job, here are some ways to avoid becoming a 24 hour a day worker again.

Hours

First and foremost, no matter what your business is, you need to have working hours. This is for your benefit. If you have an online site or an online store, you are going to be open 24 hours a day, but this doesn’t mean that you have to be at your computer for the entire day. You need to set hours for yourself, and these hours will have to include time to process whatever has come in while you aren’t working. There is a danger in sitting at your computer all day to take orders in the hopes of keeping up with them, because you will find that you never leave.

If you find that you have too much work, and not enough time, this means that you are taking on too much. You have to be sure that you are only working as much as you can handle to work, or that you are delegating tasks to make sure you aren’t having to work all day and all night. This is something that a lot of people fail to do, and it can be something that is very dangerous, because giving out tasks is the best way to make sure all of your work gets done. If you find yourself with too much, you’ll end up working more than you want to be working, so be sure to find help, or hire some if you need it.

Something else that you can be sure to do is to give yourself a break now and then. Remember that you don’t have to take every project that comes your way, and remember that you can be allowed a sick day when you are sick. These things are important, and are also vital to keeping your sanity as well as your business.

Technology

Is there an automated way to delegate parts of your daily home business tasks? If there is, you might want to take the initial investment of time to find out how they work and how you can use technology to free up more time for yourself instead of working on your home business. You can even use the extra time to expand your business or look for new ways to make it profitable.

If your home business is based online there are many companies who you can use to outsource some of your responsibilities. Obviously these options aren’t free so if your budget doesn’t allow for it at the current time, keep a reminder of the source so that you can use it when more funds become available.

Finding financial freedom does not have to be hard, but it does not happen overnight unless you win the lottery.

If you have any the following factors in your life you are a prime candidate for starting up a small home business.

You have high stress in your job.

You want to be at home with your family.

Your sick of others telling you what to do and how to do it.

Your job is not allowing you to live your dreams.

Your sick of your efforts making someone else rich.

You **** living from Paycheck to Paycheck.

Mlm or Network marketing is a great way to be in business for yourself. Now what is needed to a success with Network Marketing and the ultimate goal of finding financial freedom.

You have to devote between 10 and 40 hours to building your business. The more time you spend, the bigger and quicker it will grow.

You have to have enough money for start up and a few months of advertising your business and money to purchase any tools you may need, like a website and domain name.

You have to be willing to learn and gain experience. It takes time to build a business starting at scratch. Think McDonalds started out making millions.

You need to be willing to attend team phone training’s. You will gain so much by attending these and you get to rub shoulders with life minded people.

You must have a goal to keep you motivated. Your ultimate “Why” will keep driving you forward.

You must understand it takes persistence and time to build a business.

Ok so you say you can do the list above, what’s the next step to starting up a small home business and finding financial freedom.

Well you need to find the best multi level marketing company for you to have the ultimate success with network marketing.

Look for a business that you can become passionate about.

Look for a consumable product that is unique to the marketplace. Be sure it has a need and is affordable to all people and must be a product that people need, will use and love.

Look at the founders of the company and know they can handle a multi million dollar business.

Check the compensation plan and be sure they are paying members 50% or more to associates.

Look at the system of the team you are joining, be sure it is doable by business partners.

There you have an outline of what is needed to have success when starting up a small home business. Now it’s up to you to pick the company to partner with to give you the greatest chance of success with network marketing. I believe that MaxGxl is the pick of the litter in the homebased world.