Most small business owners in Miami pay more tax than they need to. Not because of anything exotic, but because ordinary expenses never make it onto the return. These are the ten deductions we see left on the table most often, and what to keep so each one holds up.
1. The home office
If part of your home is used regularly and only for the business, you can deduct it. The simplified method allows $5 per square foot, up to 300 square feet ($1,500 a year). The regular method deducts the business share of rent or mortgage interest, utilities and insurance, which is often worth more.
- Keep: the square footage of the office and of the whole home, plus utility bills.
2. Vehicle use
Driving to clients, suppliers, the bank or the post office counts. Commuting from home to a fixed workplace does not, unless your home is your principal place of business. You can use the IRS standard mileage rate, which is set each year, or your actual costs; if you want the standard rate, you generally have to choose it in the vehicle’s first year of business use.
- Keep: a mileage log with the date, destination, purpose and miles. A phone app makes this painless.
3. Phone and internet
The business share of your cell phone and internet plan is deductible. A reasonable, consistent percentage is fine. Claiming 100% of a phone you also use personally is not.
4. Health insurance premiums
Self-employed owners can usually deduct health, dental and long-term care premiums for themselves and their family, as long as they are not eligible for an employer-subsidized plan (including a spouse’s), up to the business’s net profit for the year. Owners of more than 2% of an S corporation can too, but the premiums must run through payroll and the deduction is limited to their W-2 wages. Long-term care premiums have age-based limits.
5. Retirement contributions
A SEP IRA or a Solo 401(k) lets you set aside far more than a personal IRA, and the contribution is deductible. A SEP IRA contribution can be made up to the filing deadline, so it is one of the few deductions you can still create after the year ends; a Solo 401(k) employee deferral, by contrast, has to be elected by December 31.
6. Startup costs
If you opened in the last year, up to $5,000 of startup costs and $5,000 of organizational costs can be deducted in the first year (the limit shrinks if total startup costs exceed $50,000), and the rest is spread over 15 years.
- Keep: every receipt from before opening day, including research, travel, legal and registration fees.
7. Professional services and software
Accountant and bookkeeper fees, legal fees, QuickBooks and other software subscriptions, business licenses, the Florida annual report fee, and merchant and bank fees are all ordinary business expenses.
8. Education and training
Courses, certifications and conferences that maintain or improve the skills you use in your current business are deductible. Training to enter a new line of work is not.
9. Business meals
Meals with clients, suppliers or your team for a business purpose are 50% deductible.
- Keep: the receipt, with a note of who you met and why.
10. The qualified business income deduction
Owners of sole proprietorships, partnerships and S corporations can generally deduct up to 20% of their qualified business income (the Section 199A deduction), which the 2025 tax law made permanent, subject to income limits that are stricter for service businesses. It is calculated on your personal return, not the business’s books, which is exactly why it gets missed.
Florida has no personal income tax, so these deductions mainly reduce your federal tax. Corporations taxed as C corporations do pay Florida corporate income tax.
General information, not advice for your situation. Rules change; talk to us before acting.
Bring us the records, and we’ll run every one of these against your numbers. If you are not sure whether something counts, keep it and ask.
Related service: Tax Preparation
By Martha Otalora · Founder & CEO, MO Accounting Services. Last reviewed October 2026.
