Question Related to Hours

[Fallenlilys]

I love my tax preparer but he often tells me the number of hours I list might be a "red flag". I keep decent records (I could be better!) but I don't feel they are extreme. Every year, I low ball the number and really feel like I do myself a disservice by being afraid to put my real numbers.

That said, this year, I had a huge water leak and lost all my records up until August. I am trying to go back and do the best I can to figure these numbers out. It's causing me a lot of anxiety as it is and with the "red flag" comment in the back of my head, I'm really worried I will estimate wrong.

Is there anywhere that lists what is considered "normal range" for things like having children in care, record keeping, cleaning up, food prep and other business related things strictly for daycare? I just want to see if the numbers I have are within normal range. I hope that makes sense.

[Blackcat31]

I love my tax preparer but he often tells me the number of hours I list might be a "red flag". I keep decent records (I could be better!) but I don't feel they are extreme. Every year, I low ball the number and really feel like I do myself a disservice by being afraid to put my real numbers.

That said, this year, I had a huge water leak and lost all my records up until August. I am trying to go back and do the best I can to figure these numbers out. It's causing me a lot of anxiety as it is and with the "red flag" comment in the back of my head, I'm really worried I will estimate wrong.

Is there anywhere that lists what is considered "normal range" for things like having children in care, record keeping, cleaning up, food prep and other business related things strictly for daycare? I just want to see if the numbers I have are within normal range. I hope that makes sense.

Welcome!

I own a separate house for my child care so I claim 100% and don’t really have any advice relating to time/space percentages but here are several other threads on the topic

https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=time+space+percent

[TomCopeland]

Expenses

I love my tax preparer but he often tells me the number of hours I list might be a "red flag". I keep decent records (I could be better!) but I don't feel they are extreme. Every year, I low ball the number and really feel like I do myself a disservice by being afraid to put my real numbers.

That said, this year, I had a huge water leak and lost all my records up until August. I am trying to go back and do the best I can to figure these numbers out. It's causing me a lot of anxiety as it is and with the "red flag" comment in the back of my head, I'm really worried I will estimate wrong.

Is there anywhere that lists what is considered "normal range" for things like having children in care, record keeping, cleaning up, food prep and other business related things strictly for daycare? I just want to see if the numbers I have are within normal range. I hope that makes sense.

There is no limit on the number of hours you can enter on your tax return. Do not worry about a red flag! Your chances of being audit are very remote. There is no "normal" that you should pay any attention to. Do your best to reconstruct your records and don't worry.

[AmyKidsCo]

In addition to the above, if you have records from previous years that show a comparable number of hours I wouldn't worry too much about it. Do your best to reconstruct, then let it go.