<prompt> Human: I have two businesses. One has very few deductions and is my day job, the other is a long-term project with extensive losses and not a dime of revenue this year hoping for revenue in the next two years. Im not a high earner. My day job earned me around 35,000 last year. But my side business lost me maybe 3000 in tangible expenses and I drove about 20,000 miles for it, so I figure Im looking at nearly 15,000 in deductions for it. Combined with the standard deduction, that should leave me with a pretty low MAGI, low enough that I may even qualify for EITC. My concern is that I want to get a home equity loan in the not too distant future. If I deduct all of these expenses, am I harming my ability to obtain credit?Now it doesnt seem worth it to me to necessarily spend thousands more on taxes than Im actually obligated to in the interest of obtaining credit going into debt, but because the HE would be to refinance other debts, its also costing me money the longer I wait on it. Im afraid that having a negligible MAGI will kill my chances of getting a loan, unless banks look at the whole picture and see that most of the losses are paper losses for mileage, which is essentially a profit to me - the mileage deduction rate is more than triple what those miles actually cost me last year. Now, theres a whole separate question of whether Im actually entitled to all of those deductions, given the nature of the business. Its work, mostly research, on two books that Im slowly writing, but has the dual purpose of also being training and obtaining qualifications for another business Im planning to start in the future but not yet qualified for. My publishing lawyer tells me that the expenses are deductible as long as it goes toward the writing. But Im going to double check with a CPA before I actually file to make sure that its all legit - Im already on the IRSs radar as a result of a few late returns in the past and one computer audit that resulted in a major discrepancy to resolve. So I do want to make sure Im correct. Alternatively, suppose I just leave off the second businesss deductions to be conservative and get a better deal with the banks. Can I still amend later to correct it? Or does that border on fraud if I have a plan to do so in advance?  <response>: Its certainly a balancing act between claiming a lot of deductions and showing sufficient income to qualify for a loan. Definitely make sure every single deduction is legit by running it through a CPA before filing but you may want to talk to a bank to see what their income requirements are. 