Taxes

IM A 1099 CAN ANYONE TELL ME OF A GOOD CPA THAT CAN HELP ME FROM PAYING ONE THIRD OF EVERY THING I MAKE. GIVE ME ADVICE ON WHAT DEDUCTIONS I CAN USE CHASING STORMS. YOUR ADVICE WOULD GREATLY BE APPRECIATIVE.

No caps please ! “a good acountant is worth there weight in gold”

I have an accounting degree and do taxes during my offseason. Truly though you need to talk to a local accountant. There are so many scenarios that a good accountant wants all the information in front of him and will ask many questions to put you on the right path. However if you didn’t set anything back and your 1099 is big you might be in trouble. I would suggest you download the schedule C from the IRS website and look over the deductions and get the most information compiled that you can and your accountant will guide you from there. Waiting until the last week of tax season won’t help either. This year I suggest you get with your accountant before december and go over your numbers, if you have a good accountant he will tell you what you need to do before the end of the year. Maybe the right time to buy equipment or whatever, just depends on the situation. But get with an accountant as soon as possible would be my advice

And if you can’t afford an accountant, learn your tax laws. After I rooked myself a bunch of years ago I decided to learn what I am entitled to, and what I have to straight out pay for. Ever since then tax season has been great for me.

Over the years I’ve paid anywere from 20-35% of my income to the IRS and state.

If your chasing storms the first big deduction that comes to mind is lodging. If you deduct your “work vehicle” you can either write it off for mileage or actual expense. Any tools such as ladders, note pads, estimating software, pens/pencils, etc. used in your storm chasing outfit can be deducted.

Unless you bought a big ticket item and decide to write it off for 2010 taxes you will be stuck paying your fair share to the IRS.

The years I paid in 20% were the good old Bush Jr years were I could buy a work truck and take all the depreciation first year. Looking back however may have spread that out some.

Like others have advised, hire a good CPA. A few days away from tax date really doubt you’ll get in the doors of any reputable CPA. You may be stuck going to the big chain tax prep companies were you’ll have a kid fresh from CPA school doing your taxes.

I worked under a 1099 for years when i was younger. Sometimes still do when subbing off gcs. Youve got to save all your receipts, anything ; pants, boots, tools,tolls, & etc. When shopping for a accountant, bookeeper, or whatever you need to find on that knows how to be aggressive, bend the rules a lil. Dont come right out and say it to them, theyll get offended. Just tell em your end & tell em if they cant be aggressive & take risks for you then they`re not for you. Talk to some other roofers in your area. Also, dont let these contractors fuck you either. They make out like bandits when they 1099 ya. On a 1099 you should make way more than on the books.

There are many legal ways to protect your money. I’m not sure “bending the rules” is the way to go. All it takes is one audit and if they find anything wrong they can go back to previous years and screw you on those too. I knew a roofer around here that paid his employees with 1099’s when they were really employees. He eventually got caught and they went back years on him and his penalties and int were huge. If you prepare yourself before tax season it will make a huge deduction. Also there is a standard per diem rate for meals and lodging if you know how many days you were out. You can look up the rate (it difers depending on area). The standard mileage rate is the same though. If its your first year you can check into the 179 depreciation deduction it might help. just depends on your situation. If you had labor and you payed them legally you can take that too.

Ya, that is total b.s. when they work you like a Mexican hourly & then 1099 ya. Remember i said bending the rules previously, a good accountant should be able to do this without future repercussions.

Like when I claim my chalk, blades, caulking and anything else I “CONSUME” during my work day. The claim was originally designed for salesman buying pens and crap, but I use it to my advantage.

Just to clarify, the rule that makes it so a Canadian employee can write off expenses is you must not go to your employers place of business everyday. I go from home to the jobsite, I rarely see the “shop”.

So kage and OSW, maybe let your guys in on the tip if they don’t do it already. They fill out a signed (by you) T2200, and then complete the T777 (federal form) for the expenses. I spend about 6 hours a year filing and logging all receipts, considering what I get back from that, well worth the time.

Bending the rules on your taxes=double taxes on an audit.

Only been audited once, didn’t pay anything, good accountant.

Three people I know companies have been audited in the past year. Two of which are huge corportations with plants across the US and China. The one paid $50,000 for legal fees fighting the IRS which he was happy to do! He didn’t go into details on amount paid in but suspect it was in the 10’s of thousands. My other friend had a 6 month audit (40 hours a week). The red flag was a $4,000,000 loss on a building. After the audit was done the amount paid was $100,000. The last one is my wifes families resturaunt which is being audited by the state as I type.

My Dad had an audit 20 years ago and again being honest with a good accountant got him off the hook.

A wealthy home owner last Spring told me something about taxes. You can make mistakes on your taxes and pay fines or you can hide income and go to jail.