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IRS Request

November 12, 2018 03:06AM
Maybe. It depends on whether you are using the cash basis (what you describe) or the accrual basis (what I use). As an IC, you have to pick one or the other, but there are certainly some advantages to both.

@PuaM wrote:

More on this good advice: You take expenses in the year you had them, income in the year you got paid. Most MSCs pay December shops in January. Now is a good time to start 2019 bookkeeping. You write off mileage expenses for December shops in December but if you get paid in January, that income is filed with 2019 statements. It is not hard if you keep an Excel spreadsheet (any 10-year-old can set it up for you.) smiling smiley
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More About Mystery Shopping Taxes
November 12, 2018 08:27PM
This is not a hobby for me . I am schedule C all the way. With the Hawaii trip - it was a score. But, I also have a lot of income from bank/retail shops that I offset with the fluff travel trips. I still owe taxes - and make sure I give some to Uncle Sam every year, but a flight to Hawaii helps reduce my self employment income, thus reducing IRS taxes. I go where the work is. It's no different from the fat cat Wall Street bankers who take their clients out to fancy dinners and expense it. What's the business motive for $200 bottles of wine?
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November 12, 2018 09:04PM
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November 13, 2018 07:26AM
@2stepps wrote:

Well, I just rechecked everything for the uptenth time and the only thing that I can see if that they do not know what they are doing the IRS that is. I mean if they bothered to check the SSN they would see that the ones related to me have nothing to do with the wife's work. All because I did not say that I was leaving the house and going to store stop A then store stop B then gas station stop C and then restaurant stop D followed by a postal stop E. Then Restaurant stop F and then stop G at home again. And I also need the address that I went to and the name of the place and what I did while I was there and I have to keep The W2 work separate from the 1099 work which I have to include because the company only paid 31 cents a mile and I drove over 19,000 miles in 2015.

This merely underscores the need for exquisite record keeping -- the one thing I am very good at! I am perfectly capable of proving, with written records, that, yes, I did leave the house and went to Store A then Store B and then gas station C and then shop D, and postal shop E. The addresses are on the first page of the guidelines, which I ALWAYS print out (and to which I attach receipt/business card, whatever).

And W2 miles -- well, that's a "business expense deduction", only deductible if you ITEMIZE, NOT THE SAME THING as Schedule C AT ALL. Different form, different rules, etc., etc., etc.

You REALLY need a tax pro, to file those amended returns for you!!!!
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