Twin Cities Business Daily

Can you deduct for business expenses if you are not a business owner?

I am a physician and a salaried employee of a university, however I have a lot of expenses that I believe fit into business expense deductions. Such as education expenses, a personally bought notebook computer for work related reasons, ect. I am using turbotax. Can you be an employee, not self employed, and still deduct for these types of business expenses? Appreciate any help.

Public Comments

1. You have what are called "Unreimbursed Employee Expenses". These are deductible on Schedule A near the bottom. Unfortunately, there is a "floor" of 2% of your adjusted gross income. This means if you earn $100,000, the first $2,000 of these Unreimbursed Expenses cannot be deducted. Anything above the floor can be, assuming you have enough total expenses to itemize in the first place. Enrolled Agent
2. These expenses are partially deductible on schedule A, itemized deductions.
3. Yes. Those all sounds like employee expenses. If you are itemizing your deductions (like with real estate and income tax paid, mortgage interest, charitable donations), then you can fill out Form 2106 to account for your employee expenses. They are limited by 2% of your income (i.e. the expenses that exceed 2% of your income are deductible...but add them all up - the Itemized Deduction form (schedule A) will take take of the limitation)