Are knives tax deductible?

Advertise with us
Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I have wondered this myself since I own a restaurant. As far as I know, they would be OK as far as the IRS is concerned, listed as a business expense. After all, they are tools of our trade, like a mechanic buying an air gun. But, I am guessing it may raise a few eyebrows if you have $500+ knives listed as an equipment expense. Could lead to trouble in case of audit. I am no accountant though... knowing my acct. , I am sure my acct. would be a bit concerned if I tried that.
 
Depends on your local tax laws but as a chef I have claimed my knife purchases along with sharpening stones , cookbooks , Etc . It may be questionable if you start claiming j-nat's though [emoji23]
 
I wrote off all knives and stones bought in 2016, 40$ a week in meals which is R&D, and a portion of my rent where my kitchen is a knife and recipe work space. Regardless of the level of knives and stones bought, personal property that is depreciating solely from business use that is NOT reimbursed by said business is tax deductible. Then again I am no expert so don't quote me.
 
As everyone has said. Possible. Just check local rules.

I know in Aus there are rules about the cost of an item before it becomes a depreciable asset, as opposed to when you can write off the total cost in a year.

Also Aus has quite strict use on personal and business use and if it can be easily demonstrated that it is used for some personal use you have proportion what you are claiming.
 
cheflivengood said:
I wrote off all knives and stones bought in 2016, 40$ a week in meals which is R&D, and a portion of my rent where my kitchen is a knife and recipe work space. Regardless of the level of knives and stones bought, personal property that is depreciating solely from business use that is NOT reimbursed by said business is tax deductible. Then again I am no expert so don't quote me.
Click to expand...

You dodged a bullet---for now. Though the IRS only audits around 1% of returns (where income is under $200K), they can audit returns going back 6 years. Business expenses are deductible (a) if not reimbursed, but more importantly (b) if the company REQUIRES you to purchase them.
 
Any work related purchases are tax deductible. It just has to equal like 2k before taking an itemized deduction becomes worth it.
 
I wrote off all the knives I bought in 2016 as well. I have receipts and photo evidence I use it solely for work as well giving a lame reason of I love tryin out different knives. And when I buy knives from other forum members, j will ask the seller to include in the note that the "gyuto" is a kitchen knife. I just try to not let the tax department have any reason to doubt my claims. The rest I leave it for my accountant to sort out. I also claim phone and internet bill for work purposes.
 
I'm a tax director in the USA. Corporate specialist, not individual expert anymore, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Not everything you buy for work use is deductible. It has to be reasonable and necessary. So if you try to say a $5K custom Honyaki is the only knife you could possibly use for work, you may have an issue.

Home office deductions are highly frowned upon. The space has to be used exclusively for work and on a regular basis. When I did do individual returns (decades ago) we advised our clients against trying to take this deduction because it was (at the time) the one with the highest disallowance rate upon audit. The rules have not changed in this area. (Business deduction for personal auto was the second highest disallowed FWIW).

Trying to deduct a meal allowance as "research" is questionable as well especially on an individual level. You have to eat anyway. You are a professional cook, not a professional eater. Costs of going to another restaurant to observe their technique and practices - yea ok. Costs to go to another restaurant to see how the competition stacks up - not so much so.

So good, even great knives - yep deductible. Collectors knives? I wouldn't try it on my return.

Chef's aprons and tops, yep deductible as those are not street clothes. Solid shoes because you stand all day? Not deductible if they can be worn as normal street clothes.

Here's a link for the business use of a home. Search on "Exclusive Use"
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p587/ar02.html#en_US_2016_publink1000226294

FWIW your chance of being audited is very small. The IRS is stretched to the limit and focus the majority of their attention where the big dollars are (multi national corporations and high net worth individuals). With that being said, I'm not sure (after the 2% AGI floor) it's really worth it to take risky deductions. I do have an office at home used exclusively for work, along with a computer, printer and scanner that I paid for out of pocket. That is for my convenience to save me having to go in on some weekends, so I don't take the home office deduction.

Just trying to be helpful in my area of expertise as you guys have been awesome. There is a lot of mis-information out there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top