Month: January 2006

Other ways to make your bathroom pleasant

 Add fresh flowers or flowering plants to the room.
 Include wall vases, old watering cans or window boxes to hold your favorite flowers. If your bathroom has a linen closet with a door, replace the door with a framed trellis or a reproduction of a Victorian screen door.
 Attach a beveled mirror to the wall over the sink and frame it with tiles.
 Make a big change with your shower curtain. A cloth curtain will be more expensive, but it will also look better, adding a truly classy note. Next best will be a nylon/cotton curtain. Either of these now come in a variety of styles and colors. Don t bother with plastic –  they look cheap, and they don’t wear well. A clear shower curtain will be just plain tacky.
 With a multi-colored curtain, choose new towels and bathmats in colors that reflect those colors. For a striped shower curtain, get some solid towels in coordinating colors. Don t match the pattern exactly, though, because it will look like too much.

You might well think of a few more ways to add your touch. Feel free to get creative and try new things. Your house, and especially the bathroom, are a statement of your style and personality that family and friends will experience up close and personally. Don t doubt your ability to express yourself!

Itemized deduction for business expenses

If you are an employee you can claim business expenses tax deduction on several expenses that you incur in conducting the company s business. These deductions should be claimed as itemized deduction on Schedule A, Form 1040.

The IRS or Internal revenue Service recognizes the following as business
expenses on which tax deductions can be claimed: transportation charges, lodging and food expenses on business trips away from home, local transportation other than commuting to work place, entertainment and gifts.

Although the cost of local commuting is not considered for deduction, there are exceptions. If you are going from one workplace to another then you may deduct the expense. For example, trips from office to client office qualify for this deduction. If you work from your home then trips from your home office to office of the organization also qualify. You can also deduct the cost of traveling between home and a temporary work location outside the area where you live and work. A place where you expect to work for less than a year is called a temporary location. Business travel expense has a long list of heads and you can refer to Topic 511 for details.