5. Deadbeats
It’s happened to us all. We perform a service or sell a product in good faith only to have our customer skip the bill. An essential bookkeeping trick is to keep track of said unpaid bill because the IRS will allow you to deduct the cost of the service or good that was never paid for. However, those who sold a service may only deduct this cost to any actual goods that were used in performance of this service. For example, you may deduct the purchase of the lumber for a coffee table that was never paid for, not the labor.
