said by jcremin:Funny, when we (my business partner and I) were first starting our company, I was beginning to explain to her how "write offs" worked. First things out of her mouth: "So we can go to Hawaii and just write it off so it doesn't cost anything". I was like: "Um, not exactly, I mean, we still have to be able to pay for the trip and only saves us a little in taxes, it's not like it is free!" lol.
To be fair, lots of people learn off people that word things very sloppily. My father always said "You can write off costs to your business and get your money back."
You most definitely do not get your money back. I figured it out easily enough, but more proper wording would've been "You don't pay income tax on what you write off. Sometimes it drops you a tax bracket, saving you even more money."
Of course, the government still gets its taxes. If you buy something, it's sales tax. If you pay someone, they pay income tax.