2026 tax year
Jeweller taxes and deductions
Your stock is capital, not a deduction. Metal and stones sitting in the safe at December 31 are inventory however much they cost, and they come off only when a piece sells.
Jewellers block insurance is a specialist product and is deductible in full, as is the safe and the alarm. Benches, lasers, casting and CAD equipment are Section 179 property. Repair and remodelling work is a service business alongside the retail one, with much less capital behind it.
The deductions with a rule attached
These are the lines where the answer is not simply "keep the receipt"each has a cap, a percentage or a test that decides how much of the spend you actually get:
- Equipment
- Section 179 property. Deduct the whole cost in the year it goes into service rather than spreading it over the asset's life, up to $2,560,000 a year, and 100% bonus depreciation is now permanent. The catch is the business-use test: anything used more than 50% for the business qualifies, and you deduct at that percentage rather than the full price. So anything you also use at home comes off at the share that is genuinely work, not the whole invoice.
The rest of the jeweller deduction list
Ordinary and necessary business expenses, deductible in full in the year you pay them, provided they are genuinely for the business:
- Stock, as cost of goods sold
- Shop rent
- Liability insurance
- Materials and supplies
- Marketing
- Staff wages
- Security and alarm
Worth knowing
Stock is capital tied up in metal and stones, and none of it is deductible until it sells.
That is what is specific to this trade. The larger deductions are the universal ones, see the full checklist.
What each deduction is worth to you
On $100,000 of profit with no state income tax, $1,000 deducted saves $305, 30.5%, because it comes off self-employment tax and income tax together:
| Net profit | Saved per $1,000 deducted | Effective |
|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $231 | 23.1% |
| $100,000 | $305 | 30.5% |
| $200,000 | $297 | 29.7% |
The last row is worth less than the one above it, and that is not a mistake: past the Social Security wage base the self-employment part of the saving drops from 15.3% to 2.9%, and the higher income-tax bracket does not quite make up the difference. A deduction is worth most in the middle.
Add a state income tax and every row rises. The 1099 calculator applies that layer.
What these words mean
- Section 179
- A rule letting you deduct the whole cost of equipment in the year you start using it, instead of spreading it over the years you own it.
- Depreciation
- Spreading the cost of something long-lasting, a vehicle, a camera, a tractor, across the years you use it, rather than deducting it all at once.
Related
- Full deductions checklist
- Every profession
- 1099 taxes by state
- Quarterly payments
- Is an S-corp worth it?
- Local income tax
General information about how these deductions work, not tax advice. Whether a particular expense is deductible for you depends on facts this page does not have, check with a tax professional before claiming anything listed here.