W-9's What do I do?

Ed Gambill · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 585

Ok guy stop the fussing.

Any money that is spent for the purpose of business actives are reasonably and customarily deductible as business expenses.

For home base business, the IRS looks hard and long at deductions for home business.

Determine how many sf are being used for 100% business actives. Based on that % you can typically deduct a proportional portion of your expense for Utilities, and other expenses related to keeping up the home office/studio. Some of these could be Insurance, Property Tax, Electric. If you phone is a business phone and listed as one or is only published on business cards, ect. then the full cost of the phone should be deductible.

In the past I did a drawing of my office space and studio space, showing the dimensions. The same drawing detailed the home dimensions. I sent that with my filing to insure the nice folks at the IRS could visualize what I was calming.

Keep records of miles driven for business purposes and use the standard deduction is typically a good way to go about it. Take the number of business miles and total miles to determine the percentage of business miles driven. Then that percentage of audio insurance, repairs and upkeep are deductible.

I studied accounting and passed all those courses while in school, and I had to do a income tax course taught by a tax accountant. I was the only one who made an "A".

NOW READ THESE WORDS CARFULLY. I am not engaged in the practice of tax accounting and therefore you need to insure through the IRS or a tax professional that the aforesaid is still accurate. Never bet the ranch on any advice you get here. I am not H&R I won’t go to tax court with you.

JS is right on one account, it is your responsibility to understand what can and can not be deducted. It is always legal to practice tax avoidance (Doing every thing that is legal to minimize your personal tax liability). Tax evasion on the other hand (Hiding, wrongful clam, not claming. You get the picture) can get you in deep deep stinky stuff.

Lee Gordon · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1549

I have an idea. Perhaps we should all obtain a copy of IRS Publication 463.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/index.html

It includes the answers to most of what we are discussing, including this: "Office in the home. If you have an office in your home that qualifies as a principal place of business, you can deduct your daily transportation costs between your home and another work location in the same trade or business. (See Publication 587, Business Use of Your Home, for information on determining if your home office qualifies as a principal place of business.)"

Ed Gambill · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 585

An old accounting joke

Here is how to hire a good accountant.

When interviewing them give each a simple math test. Something like how muck is 3 + 6. If they say 9 then ask in the next applicant.

Continue on until you get and applicant who responds to the 3 + 6 question with this. How much do you want it to be?

You then have some one who will work for you and not others.

Years ago one of my wife gal friends had just graduated from accounting school. So at the wife urging she did or tax filing. Where upon she declared that we owed a large amount because of stocks we sold.

It was a stock spun off from a very large company and we sold it because of a bulk sale. I asked her to check how much base was also spun off. What is that she asked? Base is the actually buying price. She discovered that there was a base established for each share of stock and low and behold we did not owe any thing, and actually got a refund. She even charged for the work, can you believe someone would want pay for a major screw up like that.

I didn’t hire here to do my taxes again. Do you blame me?

Arlene Kahn · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Apr 2005 Posts: 22

One of the things I use to calculate mileage (especially since I often forget to jot it down when I'm in the car) is Mapquest or some other mapping program. It provides the mileage between points A and B. Then I just calculate the deduction by multiplying the current mileage allowance by the number of miles.

One of the reasons I suggested the columns in PerformInk and Back Stage is for the simple reason that the two columnists' business is entertainment tax. Laws governing taxes for the entertainment industry are very specific and the two columnists keep up with all of the changes. They specialize in entertainment taxes and have been writing the columns and practicing for years. Many general CPAs would not have the expertise necessary to prepare tax returns for people in the entertainment industry.

The same goes for insurance. I needed to purchase liability insurance for a murder mystery company where I was a producer. The man I was working with insisted that we get the insurance from "his" insurance people because they always gave him the cheapest rates. The problem was, "his" people had no clue as to what was needed and when we finally got a quote it was ridiculously high. I contacted an insurance company that dealt with the entertainment industry and they immediately understood what I needed and was able to provide the insurance quickly and at a reasonable rate. Bottom line, you need to get information from people with the knowledge in this industry. General practitioners aren't going to cut it.

Arlene Kahn

Ed Gambill · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 585

E & O there you go!

My main line insurance broker was trying to place peril coverage for my production equipment. Video cameras and such. He was having a hard time finding the correct underwriter. "Ed I just might have to place it through Lloyds of London". Being one to make chicken salad of lemons I said "OK I’ll just hype the fact that my company is fully insured through Lloyds. If some gal can have her legs insured by them, then I would hype that my coverage was just a notable.

I’ve lived a very eclectic life. One of my many jobs was as an insurance agent. It was a let down when he placed it throught a US firm.

Dina Monaco-Boland · **Voice Talent** Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 671

Poor Aaron....

Personally, I'm with JS... I'd hire a pro. Yes, this certainly isn't rocket science but neither is what we do. What sounds better, something done by a professional talent or by a non-pro client doing his own spot? I think it's the same thing here. We know the nuances of our craft and a professional accountant knows the nuances of his and when a specialty can be found (ie an entertainment accountant as mentioned earlier) all the better. Hey, we have specialties too but I doubt tax law is one of them.

Now play nice.

Lee Kanne · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 129

Aaron Phillips · **Voice Talent** Joined: 15 Dec 2007 Posts: 57

well...

that was fun.

Lee Gordon · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1549

Colin Campbell · Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008, 19:53 (GMT) Post subject:

Since I was at top of this, I wanted to clarify something. I report ALL income. My very good accountant suggests that I do so that deductions have something substantial to be deducted from.

So... in short I do exactly was JS suggests.

1. Hire a pro.
2. Report all income... 1099 or not.

I just wanted to point out that at the very least you will want to worry about those 1099's.

Caryn Clark · **Voice Talent** Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Posts: 1000

Politics.

Just kidding.

Allison Scussel · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 928

I take 48 hours off the boards and I miss all the good stuff. Rolling Eyes

I'm going to hide the extra cash I earned in '07.. NOT!! Uncle Sam monitors the boards too. Wink

I used to do tax preperation several yrs ago. Laws change year to year and the IRS is very skeptical about home based businesses.. so beware if you're claiming that. Have a professional do your taxes if you intend on claiming alot of deductions. And save the paperwork from your returns for 7 years.

Happy Taxing! (Sorry Robert Jadah, I took your line) Laughing

Colin Campbell · Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008, 22:31 (GMT) Post subject:

...and if you're taking a home office deduction, what better reason to report all your income so you can show you are actually acomplishing something out of it.

Bob Spencer · **Voice Talent** Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 24

Lee Gordon · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1549

Just bumping up this thread as a reminder to all the self-employed among us that our estimated tax payments are due tomorrow. Evil or Very Mad