What is the point of tax write offs ?

by 5go 6 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  5go

  Do people just give money away so they can dodge get taxes ?

  That is just plain stuipid. Like they are scamming themselves.

  Sound just like the scam a former employer of mine was trying on his employees. He was was trying to tell his employees he wouldn't reimburse them for expenses he didn't have to, but he said they would get there money back via tax write offs. Which is not possible. All they do is take those cost off of what you earn, hence you at tops will get 30% of expenses back assuming you paid any taxes to begin with, if you didn't well you got money back any way through earned income.

  Great example let's say you spent 15,000 dollars on tools in stead of being reimbursed for expenses he would take it that much off your income taxes which if your reported 30,000 would put you under 15,000 off taxble income. Even being taxed at the max you still lost over 10,000 in pay. I knew I didn't understand it well at the time which made me easy prey but it was work at the time.

  It is this type of preying on people that is destroying the USA.
• 

  Hortensia

  well, if he was really doing that, he was committing a crime. sounds crazy to me.
• 

  Highlander

  Great example let's say you spent 15,000 dollars on tools

  Most employers of Automotive Technicians do not reimburse their technician's tool expenses. It's quite common for a tech to spend 5k or more per year on tools. When I worked in that trade, I spent more than 10 grand in one particular year. Writing it off as an expense was my only option.

  Now I'm self employed, so I seek out every legal tax write off that I can find. The purpose for me is to lower my income so that I pay as little tax as possible. There are many disadvantages though. Showing a very low taxable income on my tax forms, makes it more difficult to get high dollar loans.

  In the end, you have to do what is best for your pocketbook. An accountant can be very useful in determining when a write-off is good for you or not so good.
• 

  JeffT

  And you also own the tools.

  If your employer doesn't want to reimburse you for expendable items you need to do your job, stop buying them. He can't make you buy stuff that then belongs to him.
• 

  5go

  It was an example to what I was pointing out that people seeking write off are cheating themselves, and should just pay their taxes versus making last second donations to some charity, or church just to keep it out of government hands. Besides it not like churches spend there money any better than a government would or else we might would still be witnesses.

  It's a former job I didn't spend that much; I sold the tools, and a van I was allowed to keep.

  P.S. I had to buy the van first.
• 

  5go

  If your employer doesn't want to reimburse you for expendable items you need to do your job, stop buying them. He can't make you buy stuff that then belongs to him.

  Damn straight he can, or One) you won't get jobs or money from doing said jobs Two) he will fire you, and then you will have to put that down on any application that you were fired from said employer making it impossible to get a job.

  It is the reason we have minimum wages laws to forbid setting wages below a set minimum.
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  worldtraveller

  Writing off expenses will offset interest penalties if you are not prepaying in monthly installments. Governments can be a pain in the butt at the end of the year if you owe both business and personal.