What are unincurred business expenses?

"Unincurred Business Expenses" are contributions made by others to your self-employment business effort. For example, if the state vocational rehabilitation agency gives you a computer for your business, or a friend works for your business as unpaid help, these are "unincurred business expenses".

We generally follow the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules to figure your net earnings from self-employment. The IRS only allows you to deduct expenses you actually paid or incurred debt. When we make a SGA decision, we also deduct unincurred business expenses from your net earnings because we want an accurate measure of the value of your work.

What qualifies as an unincurred business expense?

For an item or service to qualify as an unincurred business expense, it must be an item or service that the IRS would allow as a legitimate business expense if you had paid for it.

Do unincurred business expenses affect your Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments?

No. We do not deduct unincurred business expenses from earnings when we figure your SSI payment amount. However, unincurred business expenses may be deducted for SGA determinations in SSI initial applications.