And don't forget that if your medical insurance premiums are paid out of PRE tax dollars, that they can NOT count towards the 7.5%. The easiest way around this is to use a flexible medical spending account if your employer offers it. All of the money that goes into it from your paycheck comes out pre-tax...that way you don't have to worry about meeting that 7.5% threshold, and you aren't limited to deducting just the amount that exceeds the 7.5%.

I did specifically ask last year (prepared by H&R Block) and they had no advice for me. The office wasn't particularly busy at the time, but I felt like we were being herded like cattle. Even funnier was that I had done them myself using their online program, but was concerned over the small refund amount and wanted to go into the storefront to have them check it all over. They didn't have to enter a single bit of info themselves (they were able to pull it up from what I'd already done) but that didn't stop them from charging the full amount, lol, and still had no advice for us. We're ending up owing this year, so I'm not sure what we're doing wrong, but I surely won't use H&R Block to find out, hehe!

Don't worry, Lydia. I'm not an accountant, either, but one prepares our taxes, and you are OK. My youngest graduated last year. She filed and got refunds, and we claimed her on our 1040, as we had done for the five kids who preceded her. College students rarely earn enough money to pay taxes. As an aside, with all the frauds going on nowadays, the IRS chased my dtr for $26.12 from taxes she prepared herself and filed while a student three years earlier! She had cashed in some bonds her grandma bought her when she was a baby to help pay for college, and she didn't figure the interest correctly. That was the only year our acc't didn't file for us. It's good to know they're diligent ar IRS, right? Sherry

It's really difficult to start up a home business--you have to be properly registered, you have to keep impeccable records, charge and pay the appropriate taxes. And when you decide to do something in the food line? Multiply the red tape by ten. You'd probably better start with the health department. In many jurisdictions, it's not legal to bake/cook food in a home kitchen for sale--if that's true where you live, you'll need to find an approved commercial kitchen to rent--and that's going to cut into your profits. Look, I hate to be a wet blanket, but I've done the home business thing--many years ago, and it didn't involve food. It turned into a nightmare. You have to do every little tiny thing by the book. Perhaps check in with the agency that promotes small businesses in your area. Or what about contacting a restaurant or two, to see if they might be interested in paying you to come to THEIR locations to bake your bread for their use--you might have to do that in the middle of the night, when they aren't preparing meals, but it might be an interesting solution. Pack up some samples of your best wares and visit some of the local independents. Good luck, but please be sure to do all your research before jumping into something that could end up costing you more than you'll make. And hey, if you're good at creating recipes? I'd highly recommend considering recipe contesting. That costs you next to nothing, and can bring in truly big bucks (I've made up to $25,000 for a single recipe, some contests pay even more).