Self-Employment SR02-17, 02/04 (AAM-A)

Cash or the dollar value of in-kind benefits received by an individual as compensation for employment from a self-employment enterprise such as farmers, salespeople etc.

Treatment: Earned Income

Average self-employment income over the period of time the income is intended to cover.

Manually subtract the monthly cost of doing business from the average gross monthly self-employment income. If the cost of doing business equals or exceeds the gross self-employment income, there is no countable earned income.

The cost of doing business are the expenses that are directly related to producing the goods or services and without which the good or services could not be produced.

The following are examples of expenses that are allowable costs of doing business:

• identifiable costs of labor, stock, and raw materials needed to perform the job such as lumber and demonstration products;

• tools and equipment;

• work-related clothing;

• business-related vehicle expenses and transportation costs incurred while on the job, including cost of maintaining the vehicle, mileage, tokens or tolls, gasoline, insurance, but not transportation expenses incurred going to and from work;

• payments on the principal and interest of the purchase price of income-producing real estate and capital assets, equipment, machinery, and other durable goods;

• advertising expenses;

• postage;

• cost of maintaining a job site, including a room in one’s home;

• telephone expenses;

• electricity for the job site;

• bookkeeping and payroll expenses;

• employees;

• lodging away from the home while on a job;

• rentals related to being able to complete a job, whether it is equipment or another type of rental;

• insurance premiums on equipment and real estate used in producing income;

• insurance premiums including disability, workers compensation, job site insurance, and bonding;

• employee taxes;

• taxes on income-producing property, business profits taxes, and other mandatory business-related taxes (but not federal, state, or local income taxes); and

• any other identifiable cost unique to a particular self-employment business.

The following expenses are not allowable as a cost of doing business:

• depreciation;

• net losses from previous periods;

• money set aside for retirement purposes;

• personal business and entertainment expenses;

• personal transportation;

• any amount that exceeds the payment a household receives from a boarder for lodging and meals;

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• purchase price of capital assets (such as real estate, machinery, and equipment); and

• personal (not business-related) taxes such as income taxes.

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See Boarder, Child Care , Roomer and Rental Income for the treatment of those types of self-employment income.