Suggestion to Help Pay for IT Studies/Certification Pursuits
genXrcist
Member Posts: 531
Hey all,
Wanted to post what I currently do that helps me pay for my IT Certification studies. A lot of you probably do some small IT work on the side but many of you may not actually have a business for this sort of work. My suggestion is, start a small S-Corp to pay your expenses.
I have an S-Corp and do all my on-the-side IT work through that entity. I then use that entity to pay for my books, exams & training materials....TAX FREE! *You pay tax on your profit as an S-Corp, not your income like a W2 employee does.*
Disclaimer* I'm not an accountant but my wife and I do use one and he said it's perfectly legitimate to pay for skills growth through your S-Corp if those skills directly match up with your businesses purpose.
The only downside to this is it does take a bit of work and a few hundred dollars to set it up. You also have to file a seperate business tax return but if you don't do a lot of business the return is pretty simple. Certainly easier than the friggin MCSE was!! lol
Anyway, I do about $2,000 to $3,000 in revenue through my business which I've used to pay for most of my books, exam fees and equipment. Works out pretty nice!
One final caveat is that if you claim a loss three years in a row, the IRS tends to come after you and label you a hobby business and tries to take away your S-Corp (or so my research has shown me). Anyway, there's nothing wrong with having a loss every year so long as you can prove that you are legitimately trying to make money. Easy way to avoid this though is to show a small profit every other year or so.
Hope this helps, comments welcome!
Wanted to post what I currently do that helps me pay for my IT Certification studies. A lot of you probably do some small IT work on the side but many of you may not actually have a business for this sort of work. My suggestion is, start a small S-Corp to pay your expenses.
I have an S-Corp and do all my on-the-side IT work through that entity. I then use that entity to pay for my books, exams & training materials....TAX FREE! *You pay tax on your profit as an S-Corp, not your income like a W2 employee does.*
Disclaimer* I'm not an accountant but my wife and I do use one and he said it's perfectly legitimate to pay for skills growth through your S-Corp if those skills directly match up with your businesses purpose.
The only downside to this is it does take a bit of work and a few hundred dollars to set it up. You also have to file a seperate business tax return but if you don't do a lot of business the return is pretty simple. Certainly easier than the friggin MCSE was!! lol
Anyway, I do about $2,000 to $3,000 in revenue through my business which I've used to pay for most of my books, exam fees and equipment. Works out pretty nice!
One final caveat is that if you claim a loss three years in a row, the IRS tends to come after you and label you a hobby business and tries to take away your S-Corp (or so my research has shown me). Anyway, there's nothing wrong with having a loss every year so long as you can prove that you are legitimately trying to make money. Easy way to avoid this though is to show a small profit every other year or so.
Hope this helps, comments welcome!
1) CCNP Goal: by August 2012