But Rickt,
I am not talking here about running a hotel or working the cubicle of a megacorp or slaving away in the salt mines, I am talking about keeping the biz I love doing running minimally enough to create videos that help charities and also because it will keep me sharp and active physically. I will still consider myself "semi" retired at 62 since it will be much easier and slower than what I do now commercially. I don't think the non-small biz owners realize this is a 60 hour a week endeavor, running your own show.
I am one of the few that are blessed to do something that I love so to me it's not really going to work, it's just that at 62 I know I can't keep up this pace so I want to go from commercial (difficult) to non-profit (easier), which I will consider "semi" retirement, yet need to have the write offs (deductions) to not take a loss.
Yes, I survived an audit, no problems. Records and receipts are what counts. I can tell many respondents have not run a small service business and then started to slow it down in a glide path into retirement...Seems all the non-small business owners think deductions are just a tax scam?
What I was hoping to receive here is advice from others like myself as to how to transition to a soft or semi-retirement doing "break even" charity work, yet keep the write offs so it doesn't end up becoming a loss. I would assume that when one winds down the business but keeps it going enough to do a few projects for non-profits, the idea is not to lose money, correct? Yet I'd like to use my skills to help worthy causes. This site seems to be about growing the nest egg, not losing money, correct? Has no one asked this question before? Perhaps this is the wrong site to ask advice about keeping the biz up after 62 since everyone here has folded their tent and are just managing their investments?
So I repeat: Please respond only if you have throttled down a small service business in retirement, yet kept it open to the point where you could function servicing charities (yet not lose money), and have the write offs to make sure you break even. Or if you're a CPA I'd love your advice. So, if you haven't done that, meaning run your own service business like I have for 33 years, your advice isn't helpful. And as I said, this week I will run the options by my accountant and report back.
Many thanks