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2025 Standard Mileage Rates
Purpose | Rates per Mile |
Business | 70 cents |
Medical/Moving | 21 cents |
Charitable | 14 cents |
2024 Standard Mileage Rates
Purpose | Rates per Mile |
Business | 67 cents |
Medical/Moving | 21 cents |
Charitable | 14 cents |
Check It Out!
Check out the article in PICPA CPA Now by Greg Kashella, published November 2021, Enhanced Financial Statement Disclosures for Small Businesses.
Check out the article in the Central Penn Business Journal, Women Who Lead, March 2019 article featuring our partner Jori Culp
Tax-Related Identity Theft
The IRS combats tax-related identity theft with aggressive strategies of prevention, detection and victim assistance. To find out more about tax-related identity theft call our office or visit https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/identity-protection for information and guidance.
Remember that the IRS will never contact you by electronic means. This includes emails, phone calls, text messages, or social media channels. If you are ever in doubt whether contact by someone claiming to be from the IRS is legitimate, call our office first for verification.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports there were nearly 447,000 new business applications in May of 2025. The bureau measures this by tracking the number of businesses applying for an Employer Identification Number.
If you’re one of the entrepreneurs, you may not know that many of the expenses incurred by start-ups can’t currently be deducted on your tax return. You should be aware that the way you handle some of your initial expenses can make a large difference in your federal tax bill.
How to treat expenses for tax purposes
If you’re starting or planning to launch a new business, here are three rules to keep in mind:
- Start-up costs include those incurred or paid while creating an active trade or business or investigating the creation or acquisition of one.
- Under the tax code, taxpayers can elect to deduct up to $5,000 of business start-up costs and $5,000 of organizational costs in the year the business begins. As you know, $5,000 doesn’t go very far these days! And the $5,000 deduction is reduced dollar-for-dollar by the amount your total start-up or organizational costs exceed $50,000. Any remaining costs must be amortized over 180 months on a straight-line basis.
- No deductions, including amortization deductions, are allowed until the year when “active conduct” of your new business begins. Generally, this means the year when the business has all the necessary components in place to start generating revenue. To determine if a taxpayer meets this test, the IRS and courts generally ask questions such as: Did the taxpayer undertake the activity with the intention of earning a profit? Was the taxpayer regularly and actively involved? And did the activity actually begin?
Expenses that qualify
In general, start-up expenses are those you incur to:
- Investigate the creation or acquisition of a business,
- Create a business, or
- Engage in a for-profit activity in anticipation of that activity becoming an active business.
To qualify for the limited deduction, an expense must also be one that would be deductible if incurred after the business began. One example is money you spend analyzing potential markets for a new product or service.
To be eligible as an “organization expense,” an expense must be related to establishing a corporation or partnership. Some examples of these expenses are legal and accounting fees for services related to organizing a new business, and filing fees paid to the state of incorporation.
Plan now
If you have start-up expenses you’d like to deduct this year, you need to decide whether to take the election described above. Recordkeeping is critical. Contact us about your start-up plans. We can help with the tax and other aspects of your new business.
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