Insurance

You can generally deduct premiums you pay for the following kinds of insurance related to your business.

1. Fire, theft, flood, or similar insurance.
2. Credit insurance on losses from unpaid debts.
3. Group hospitalization and medical insurance for employees, including long-term care insurance.
4. Liability insurance.
5. Malpractice insurance that covers your personal liability for professional negligence resulting in injury or damage to patients or clients.
6. Workers' compensation insurance set by state law that covers any claims for bodily injuries or job-related diseases suffered by employees in your business, regardless of fault.
7. Contributions to a state unemployment insurance fund are deductible as taxes if they are considered taxes under state law.
8. Overhead insurance that pays you for business overhead expenses you have during long periods of disability caused by your injury or sickness.
9. Car and other vehicle insurance that covers vehicles used in your business for liability, damages, and other losses. If you operate a vehicle partly for personal use, you can deduct only the part of your insurance premiums that applies to the business use of the vehicle. If you use the standard mileage rate to figure your car expenses, you cannot deduct any car insurance premiums.
10. Life insurance covering your employees if you are not directly or indirectly the beneficiary under the contract.
11. Use and occupancy and business interruption insurance that pays you for lost profits if your business is shut down due to a fire or other cause.

You cannot deduct premiums on the following kinds of insurance.

1. Self-insurance reserve funds. You cannot deduct amounts credited to a reserve you set up for self-insurance. This applies even if you cannot get business insurance coverage for certain business risks. However, your actual losses may be deductible. See Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts (Business and Nonbusiness).
2. Loss of earnings. You cannot deduct premiums for a policy that pays for your lost earnings due to sickness or disability. However, see item (8) in the previous list.
3. Certain life insurance and annuities. For contracts issued before June 9, 1997, you cannot deduct the premiums on a life insurance policy covering yourself, an employee, or any person with a financial interest in your business if you are directly or indirectly a beneficiary of the policy. You are included among possible beneficiaries of the policy if the policy owner is obligated to repay a loan from you using the proceeds of the policy. A person has a financial interest in your business if the person is an owner or part owner of the business or has lent money to the business.
   For contracts issued after June 8, 1997, you generally cannot deduct the premiums on any life insurance policy, endowment contract, or annuity contract if you are directly or indirectly a beneficiary. The disallowance applies without regard to whom the policy covers.
4. Insurance to secure a loan. If you take out a policy on your life or on the life of another person with a financial interest in your business to get or protect a business loan, you cannot deduct the premiums as a business expense. Nor can you deduct the premiums as interest on business loans or as an expense of financing loans.

Health insurance deduction for the self-employed. You can deduct up to 60% of the amount you paid during 2000 for medical insurance and qualified long-term care insurance for yourself and your family.

How to figure the deduction. Generally, you can use the worksheet in the Form 1040 instructions to figure your deduction. However, if any of the following apply, you must use the worksheet in chapter 7 of Publication 535.

• You have more than one source of income subject to self-employment tax.
• You file Form 2555 or Form 2555-EZ (relating to foreign earned income).
• You are using amounts paid for long-term care insurance to figure the deduction.

Cash or accrual method prepayments. You cannot deduct in one year the entire premium for an insurance policy that covers more than one year. You can deduct only the part of the premium that applies to that year. For each later tax year, you can deduct the part that applies to that tax year.

More information. For more information about deducting insurance, see chapter 7 in Publication 535.

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