[Dixielandjazz] 1099's

[John McClernan]

Whenever questioned on this topic, I always say that a tux is a stage  
costume or uniform because it has sequins. Just be ready with the  
needle and thread in case they call your bluff. (Yeah, yeah, I know  
that the local tux rental place has tuxes with sequins, but it has  
always settled the issue for me.)

The same goes for expenses. Be ready to back them up with receipts.  
The only time I was audited, they had to give me back the full $1,500 
+ they were holding, plus interest. When I received the audit notice,  
my accountant said, "Do you want to go?", meaning that I didn't have  
to, since he was going. I said yes, but next time I won't. I caught  
myself volunteering information that I didn't have to give and they  
hadn't the right to ask for. The accountant had the best line of the  
day, when the legitimacy of some of my expenses was questioned. He  
said to the auditor, "Look at it this way. We don't make the laws, we  
just take advantage of them." The auditor had to fill out the  
reimbursement form 3 times because she forgot how to do it and  
screwed it up twice. She said, "You'll have to excuse me. I don't  
have to do this very often."

Yesssss!!

This was sometime around 1977 at the Camden, NJ IRS field office. I  
have not been audited since. (Uh oh, jinx on me?)

John


On Feb 21, 2006, at 6:15 PM, Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis  
wrote:

>
> It's a good idea to call a tux a uniform.  The uniforms are  
> deductible but Tuxes have other uses and may not be deductible  
> depending on how hard ass the auditor wants to be.  Technically you  
> need to have the band name or leaders name on the tux or dress like  
> the guys at Joe's garage have Joe's garage or their name on the  
> shirts.  For that they don't call you in they write you a nastygram  
> telling you something is disallowed and remove it from your refund  
> if any or send you a bill.  Over the years I have gotten a few  
> nastygrams from the IRS disallowing something but not since I  
> started to use a computer to do my taxes and since I started  
> calling Tuxes uniforms..