Chickens

[blessed mom]

So...we have chickens. They are not a main part of the daycare but I do use them in the sense of demonstrating how birds lay eggs. Can I write off part of their feed?

[KEG123]

I'd say yes, especially if you also feed the eggs to the children.

[TomCopeland]

Tricky question. You can deduct all "ordinary and necessary" expenses for your business. These words mean typical, helpful, appropriate, useful. At first glance chickens don't seem to meet this test. However, if you incorporate chickens into the learning curriculum of your business, then the cost of feed would be deductible. You would need to show this by having written records of what you taught children about chickens, how the children interacted with the chickens, photos of children with chickens, etc.

[blessed mom]

Originally Posted by TomCopeland

Tricky question. You can deduct all "ordinary and necessary" expenses for your business. These words mean typical, helpful, appropriate, useful. At first glance chickens don't seem to meet this test. However, if you incorporate chickens into the learning curriculum of your business, then the cost of feed would be deductible. You would need to show this by having written records of what you taught children about chickens, how the children interacted with the chickens, photos of children with chickens, etc.

We absolutely do this! Would I only be able to write it off for the month we are studying the chicken life cycle or would I be able to do it for the entire year? Oh...and we do eat the chicken eggs too.

[blessed mom]

Does eating the eggs on a weekly basis make them "necessary"?

[TomCopeland]

If you are involving chickens in your curriculum year round, deduct 12 months of expenses, if not, don't deduct as much.