I guess I could just declare it as income, but that doesn't feel right. I didn't earn it by programming (my job). When I get rebates, I just reduce the deduction by the amount of the rebate. For example, if I buy a printer for
120.00 and get a rebate of 30.00, I claim an expense of 90.00. I don't know how to deal with these Cash Back Rewards Checks. Any suggestions please?Thank you
You should seperate the transactions. Book the expense or asset at the original cost and treat the rebate as miscellaneous income. That is assuming you are not mixing personal & business expenditures on the same credit card. In your printer example, you should have booked 120.00 to fixed assets and depreciated it or used Section 179 to deduct the cost and included the 30.00 in income.
I do not want a rebate, from a purchase to artificially 'boost' my income. Accordingly, I prefer, to reduce the expense/deduction, by the rebate amount. I document this very explicitly on my deductions spreadsheet. Of course, I don't know much about accounting. If this treatment is illegal, or just plain WRONG, I can adjust my behavior. Can I continue as I have been?
Thank you, cardinal24
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