The questions never get asked
Clinical supervision. Consultation groups. Licensure across two states. A second office two days a week. When relevant questions are not asked, eligible expenses may be overlooked or documented incorrectly.
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Could your Accountant be costing you thousands?
Uncover 12 overlooked tax write-offs designed for mental health practices, the deductions that get missed when the person filing your return has never worked with a therapist before.
Created by Safietou D. Russell, CPA, EA, MST
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The problem
Most Accountants are generalists. Your practice is not general.
Expenses such as clinical supervision, professional consultation, multistate licensure, telehealth and continuing education may require specific review. The e-book highlights questions practice owners can discuss with their tax professional.
Home office gets skipped
Telehealth changed where the work happens. A home office may qualify when the applicable requirements are met and the use of the space is documented properly.
It happens once a year, too late
A return filed in March can only record decisions you already made. The write-offs in this book depend on choices made months earlier.
To be clear: this is not about aggressive positions or gray areas. Every deduction in the e-book is a legitimate one that already exists in the tax code. It simply requires somebody to know your practice well enough to spot it.
What it costs to wait
Overpaying is quiet. That is what makes it expensive.
An unclaimed deduction never shows up as a line item. There is no notice, no phone call, no red figure at the bottom of a statement. The money simply leaves and you assume that was the price.
And because tax returns repeat, a missed deduction is rarely a one-year event. The same question goes unasked next spring, and the spring after that. Reviewing prior-year treatment and current documentation can help identify expenses that may require closer attention going forward.
Meanwhile that money had jobs to do, a retirement contribution, a supervisor's salary, a month of runway so you could stop taking clients who drain you.
What changes when someone asks the right questions
- You stop treating legitimate practice costs as personal spending
- Your records get built as you go, not reconstructed in March
- Travel, training and home-office decisions get made with the rules in mind
- You can tell whether an accountant actually knows your field within one conversation
What's inside
Twelve write-offs, each with the rule that makes it stick
Every entry explains what qualifies, what does not, and what you need to keep, so you are claiming things correctly rather than hopefully.
Turning work-related travel into a deduction
When a conference, training or out-of-town commitment makes a trip deductible, which portions of it qualify, and how to handle the days that are genuinely personal.
Legally deducting part of your home expenses
How the home-office rules apply when you see clients by telehealth, run admin from a spare room, or split time between home and a leased suite, and what makes the space qualify.
Common misconceptions about business meals
The meal deduction is one of the most misunderstood items on a return. This section covers what is actually deductible, at what rate, and the documentation that keeps it defensible.
Key write-offs specific to mental health practices
The costs that exist because of how a practice operates, supervision, consultation, licensure, professional development, practice tools and the rest of what your work quietly requires.
And more, across all twelve
The remaining entries cover the deductions that come up again and again in real practices, the ones a generalist return misses not through carelessness, but through unfamiliarity.
Who wrote it
Safietou D. Russell, CPA, EA, MST
Safietou D. Russell, known as Safie for short, founded SDR Consulting Inc. in 2016 after more than fifteen years in public accounting, and she has been serving clients in tax and accounting since 2002. She is a Certified Public Accountant, an Enrolled Agent and a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, with a Master of Science in Taxation from Florida Atlantic University.
She has worked with clients across more than 25 industries, and the work that kept pulling her back was with mental health professionals. This e-book is the short version of a conversation she has had with practice owners many, many times.
Certified Public Accountant
Enrolled Agent
MS in Taxation
Read Safietou's full story
SDR Consulting is incredible! And Safie is a dream! I could not recommend her more. She is timely, answers all of my questions, and has taught me so much about running my own business. She came in and helped me clean up all my first time company owner mistakes, and has done so with grace and care. I hope to always have SDR by my side!
Rated 5.0 across Google and QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Read every review.
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- The e-book is free. Additional resources and services may be available separately.
- Written for practice owners, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners and group owners.
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Quick questions
Before you enter your email
Is the e-book really free?
Yes. Enter your name and email and the download arrives in your inbox. There is no card required and nothing that quietly converts into a paid subscription.
Do these write-offs apply if I'm not an S corporation?
Most of them do. These deductions relate to how a practice operates rather than which entity box you ticked, so sole proprietors, single-member LLCs, partnerships and S corporations can all use them. Entity choice changes other things, chiefly how you pay yourself, which is covered in our 7-point S corporation checklist.
Will my accountant be annoyed that I read this?
A good one will be pleased. The e-book is written so you can ask better questions, not so you can argue about the answers. If your accountant reacts badly to an informed client, that is itself useful information about the relationship.
What happens to my email address?
You get the e-book, then occasional practical notes for practice owners, deadlines worth knowing about, questions that come up repeatedly, that sort of thing. Unsubscribe from any email in one click. We never sell or share your details. See our privacy policy.