Entrepreneurial

A woman fills out an income tax form in New York. REUTERS/Mike Segar

– Stephanie Rabiner is a contributor to FindLaw’s Free Enterprise blog. FindLaw is a Thomson Reuters publication. This article originally appeared here. –

There is no definite answer for those of you who wish to know just what is tax deductible for a small business.

According to the painfully dry tax code, a business may deduct all expenses that are ordinary, necessary and reasonable.

Just what does that mean? Think about expenses that are helpful, appropriate and common in your line of work. Oh, and they can’t make you laugh.

Internal Revenue Service Code section 162 provides a list of what is tax deductible — including travel, meal and entertainment expenses — under the ordinary and necessary clause. It, however, is not exhaustive, leaving many expenses to your interpretation.

As any small business owner knows, getting a new company off the ground requires a lot of work. And for those entrepreneurs not enamored with the idea of running their company as a one-person show, hiring employees is among the first steps along the way to actually making it happen.

Unfortunately, many of the same startups burdened with so much work also suffer from a limited supply of funds in their early days, meaning they can find it tough to afford the number of employees they need.

But with the ranks of unemployed in the United States hovering at its highest rate in more than two decades, some small firms have found a rather unusual solution to this dilemma  – people willing to work for free. Employment agencies such as Jobnob.com and PeopleConnect have done their part in connecting unemployed individuals willing to work without payment to small firms in need of a helping hand.

Today marks the launch of Reuters Small Business, designed to provide entrepreneurs with the knowledge they need to innovate and grow their businesses.

We’ve got a dedicated editorial team looking at the stories that matter most to the small business sector, and content from partners like Entrepreneur, BNET, IDG, GreenBiz.com, and Wired. Editor Jon Cook will also be reporting live from the Small Business Week conference in Washington, DC.

Here’s some of what is available this week:

A look at start-up funding in the bailout era A multimedia feature on budding handbag maven Jane Saidenberg A FindLaw resource center with dozens of guides to navigating the legal waters as a small business A blog post on finding the right people for your business, by The Big Money‘s  Jonathan Weber

Are you a small business owner or a multimedia entrepreneur? We are looking to build a community of small business owners, and we want to hear from you!