Home     Contact Us    
Main Board Job Seeker's Board Job Wanted Board Resume Bank Company Board Word Help Medquist New MTs Classifieds Offshore Concerns VR/Speech Recognition Tech Help Coding/Medical Billing
Gab Board Politics Comedy Stop Health Issues
ADVERTISEMENT




Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

You can deduct many things when you are an IC - sm

Posted By: XXX on 2007-01-07
In Reply to: But listen, have been doing just the above for some time - KittyC

Obviously since you were only an IC for 2 months in 2006, you can only make deductions for those 2 months, electricity for your home office, supplies, internet connection, phone, if you bought a computer for the IC job, use of your home office (a small fraction of your mortgage)---now if you are planning to move the smart thing to do is not take the home office deduction, it causes problems, a tax professional can explain all that. I take everything but the home office deduction as we have been saying for years were are going to move, and I figure if I finally do it, that will be when we finally do move, I'd probably be able to right off anohter $1k if I took it. So I end up writing off a percentage of my electricity and heat, phone line, internet, computer (took that deduction a few years ago), computer chair, printer supplies, reference books, programs, etc. You get the picture. Anything that pertains to your job you can write off basically. If you drive and pick up/deliver work, you can write off your mileage, just keep records. I have had both employee jobs and IC at the same time, best of both worlds in regards to taxes. I would have extra taxes taken out of the employee job to cover my IC taxes, though my DH has extra taken out and that has always covered my taxes so far. It is not hard to do, use a spreadsheet and let the computer do the work for you.


Complete Discussion Below: marks the location of current message within thread

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu


Other related messages found in our database

They want to deduct your salary from their
business expenses - so if they have NOT paid you, do not cooperate. Send them a registered letter stating simply the total $ owed, and enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope for their convenience - ha - and hold out signing any forms until YOU GET PAID!! What nerve they have!
Even when they deduct your entire (sm)
report if you make one error that QA doesn't catch and the hospital does?

Seems to me like QA should get dinged, not the MT.

TRS is your typical admin-heavy, treat the MT like a number company, made more offensive by their assumption that everyone in America is "Christian" and will adore prayer requests and other off-topic crap on the company email.


You can still deduct your MT expenses if your and IC - sm
regardless of taking the standard deduction. Your write offs for MT are on the Schedule C (not B). My husband and I take the standard deduction as we don't have enough on our Sch. B; then I write off all my IC deductions and report my income on the Sch. C.; putting the bottom line (income minus IC write-offs) on the 1040 line 12. So I am not quite clear on what you are talking about but I know how I do it is how most of us (if not all) do our deductions. You may want to do an amended return.
Yes you can deduct it. Employees get

the same deductions many ICs do particularly since so many companies do not pay for large office space any longer, power, etc.  If you have any question at all about how to do it, ask your accountant but Turbo Tax walked me through it last year and this year too.  It used to be that they did not ask, but now they do and you can deduct your office based on the size of it and the mortgage etc. 


What many offices used to have now belongs to us that work at home and yes, we get that benefit because the offices definitely cannot legally deduct for this. Some companies reimburse for your internet.  Oh whoopie.  Less are providing equipment.  So now we do get to do a whole lot as employees because the costs of these necessities for work have been placed on us by cheap employers who try to get by with as little expense as possible.


 


No, it's not. Poster says nothing about deduct.
x
You can deduct A LOT more than just office
x
What do you mean? They pay/deduct all but state taxes?
.
You can deduct your work stuff, i.e. all of above, but you will need a Sch. C - sm
I believe. I think you need that schedule (vs. the CEZ) in order to write all that off. The computer would be line 13 and you can take a section 179 deduction for the entire amount, for which you need form 4562 (lines 7-12 and 24a-29). It is not difficult to do. For your state taxes generally (presume every state is different though), you take line 36 off your 1040 (if you are using a 1040) and that amount will contain your reported income from the sch. C (which has your write-offs) - Good luck !
deduct for errors, infomatics
thatnks for your response. it's in the contract i got from them sat. i am supposed to start training tomorrow. my friend works for them and loves it. i'm a little bit more skeptical i guess. all type never called me back and that was me. i have applied to lots of cos. this weekend and will probably hear from some tomorrow. i had my own service and am technologically deprived. we had tapes and c phones, no internet voice. this is all new to me. infomatics does say they pay ins. now if you are full time.
deduct for errors, infomatics
Just curious but where did you obtain this information? I've heard there is another company, (who will deny it but the MTs swear it happens) who deducts for errors. I do not know this firsthand, however.

Did you take the job with Infomatics?

When I spoke with them about a year ago they were at 8 cpl and just in case - they do not have insurance coverage, which is something I must have.

Also, did you make a post earlier about a company All Type and the recruiter didn't call you back? If that is you, did they finally call you - would you consider working for them at this point?

I have always tried to research any company I think I would like to apply to, prior to applying. I even go so far as to check their Dunn & Bradstreet scores, because I want to know how financially stable they are or are not, if they pay bills on time, etc. But I'm a little OCD and AR...LOL

Well, I've rambled enough...BUT,,,,Please let us know what you decide and BEST OF LUCK :-)
DEDUCT FOR ERRORS, INFOMATICS
Do all big co. deduct for less than 989% accuracy.  They deduct 5%  Really leary of this company and am supposed to train tomorrow.  Seems it stays at 8 cents forever with no differentials or anything.
If married, have husband deduct more
You say you are married have your husband deduct more.  They don't care who pays the taxes as long as they get paid.  If you owe over a certain percentage they can put on a small fine but to me it didn't bother me and the few times I had to pay, I did it at year end.   When married though just had my hubby do one less dependant or single instead of married and it worked and most of the time still got a few pennies back.  But I keep a running spread sheet and on my Quick Books of what I am making, what my deductions are, etc. to keep ahead of the game.  Am always budgeting for next month and next year. 
each co. sets their own % to deduct, there is no standard
You would need to check the QA policy at your company to see what they deduct in points or percentage for each type of error. What Spheris does versus TTS or Medquist or whoever, it's all different.
MTSO will deduct for errors?
Hello everyone.  I signed a contract that my company can deduct for a certain percentage of errors or too many blanks.  Is this the norm?  Please advise.  I have 10 years of experience but I am still concerned.
Was told could deduct pet expenses. sm.
If it is a dog and is over 50 pounds, you can claim its food, vet bills, pet insurance, vaccinations all that as long as your business is run from your home. It applies as a guard dog. It does not matter which breed the dog is either. This is the state of Missouri, not sure about other states.

I am gonna try it as we shelled out alot of money over a period of time for a dog that was poisoned. Luckily, he lived.
I also live in an apt complex and plan to deduct
75% of my ISP, 100% of my ULD and I am considering 50% of my utilities (haven't decided on that one yet).

The reason I won't file for paying taxes is this. I live in a large apartment complex. Most of the complex is located within city limits, but I live in the back part which is actually located in what is considered as incorporated county. So, you can see that the property management pays a different tax rate for the majority of its property from the location of my apartment and because I cannot hand the IRS a statement showing I paid XXX amount in property tax, I will only claim the square footage...something I can prove in writing by printing out the floor plan, taking pictures of the office, and having a copy of the lease.
I tried to deduct price of deck by sitting out
x
No, SE means you pay part of your FICA and SS and state tax. They do not deduct it all.
x
Doesn't matter....they deduct 25% (or more) from your TOTAL lines - NM
NM
Can an at home employee deduct a computer on taxes?

Can deduct portion of mortgage, utilities.Equip
x
deduct telephone, electric and portion of house payments.
Hope this helps!
Bad things? what bad things? people's being petty and small?
x
deduct everything you can think of, electricity, phone, home office if you chose to, supplies, inter
you get the picture. I don't do the home office deduction though because we keep saying we are going to build on a lot we have and things get screwed up with taxes due to this, something with depreciation, not really sure, know someone who had this problem though, owed a lot back. When we do move, then I will take it since I know it won't be an issue then. I write off about $2-$3K a year which helps some. Was paying quartly but have not done it in 2 years as I usually don't owe more than $1200 and my husband has extra taken out of his pay, so that has always, so far, taken care of any taxes I have "owed". -- Check out the IRS website they have plenty of info on the subject.
Thwap the husband on the head, buy the keyboard, save the receipt, deduct it from your taxes.

I wouldn't even ask my husband for something like that, any more than he asks me if he can fill up his car with gas so he can get to work! Sheesh! What a prince of a guy you've got there....  You get your keyboard, girl! 


I deduct all expenses that relate to my home office-% of utilities, taxes, repairs to that room, --s
mortgage (we do not plan to sell our house so this deduction will not affect us)as my office is used only for that purpose, internet, phone, I print out a daily schedule so paper/ink, computer repairs, pens, pencils, tape, staples, file cabinets, storge bins for tax recepts/tax returns,file folders. Anything/everything I use to do my job.

I was using mileage for another account where I pick up tapes every day, but found for me the time it took to keep track of the mileage, write it down, add it up was not worth the effort so I quit doing it this year.
You can't make things worse and could make things better.
The skinny woman may be ill.  The guy might not know the dog is a nuisance.  Who knows?  Maybe it is not as forbidding as it seems and maybe they just need to be asked in a nice way. 
I do a lot of the same things you do...

I also go water the plants - sometimes just being out in the sunshine for 20 minutes or so wakes me up and gets me going again.


I also do the online thing for my kids:  Gap, Old Navy and Abercrombie Kids.  I occasionally look at Sephora for me.  


And yes, exercise does help.  I either take a run first thing in the a.m. or around 1:00.  The morning gives me a totally different spin on the day - I feel better in general the whole day and much more positive.  If I wake up too late for that, I end up going around 1:00, as I find that around that time I start wandering mentally anyway.  I used to feel guilty for taking the hour or so away but realized if I added up all the minutes I spend staring at the screen (waiting for the words to type themselves) it would be more than an hour.  So I try to use my time wisely and for myself by exercising and feel more focused and positive afterwards.  This is a habit I'm still creating.  I've been doing this a while now and I still some days have to convince myself it's okay and the hour is going to help me, not hurt me.  After I'm done I'm always glad I went. 


Thanks for posting this question - you gave me some good ideas. 


There are a few things you can do. Don't

answer phones, let machine pick up. Turn ringer off on cell phone. Stay off boards, turn tv down or off. I don't know about others but I need a little background noise so I keep tv on a volume where I can hear it but not truly understand what is going on. I keep it on the music channel just so I hear something in the background. Don't think about the dirty dishes, laundry or 100 other things needed to be done in the house.


If you need a drink, get one before you start, same goes for a snack. I get a bowl of something to snack on before I start working such as pretzels, carrot sticks, m&m, etc. I bought an oven timer to keep on my desk. I set it for 3 to 4 hours and then take a little break when it goes off. When I first sign on I can work for 4+ hours w/o getting up.


Make macros of phrases. The phrases are the key. If you're forever typing something over and over and saying "I should make a macro for it," don't say it, do it. Closed head injury precautions are set as "chip-" in shorthand. I also do a lot of consults and at the end they have their own little "thank you for allowing me to participate" statement. I use the docs last name with a T at the end of it for the word thank you such as "SmithT" because not all the thank you statements are the same. WDI is written discharge instructions, wci wound care instructions. Macro your labs and headings so you don't have to keep typing them. If the word or abbr. needs to capitalized make a macro. igg comes out as IgG. The less you hit your shift key, it's saving a key stroke. 05m comes out as 0.5% Marcaine, etc. Make something you can remember. I'm at the point now where I've done the same accounts for years and hardly make macros, maybe 1 or 2 a day. If I make a macro today I write it in a notebook sitting right in front of me. It's a quick reminder for me.


Hope some of this helps.


Many things are said here...sometimes...

people get a bit testy.  But, guess what?  We are all adults, aren't we?  Long ago I learned to not take offense to things, remarks, opinions, whatever - as most often taking offense only drags you down personally.  Why let things get to you?


MQLover has every right to express her opinion.  Is she the only one who ever slams back when she gets slammed?  Hardly.  That is a natural reaction.  It's a defense mechanism.  We don't all feel kissy/huggie all the time, and we especially don't when we express our thoughts and get smacked for them. 


If someone's post irritate or bother you, why not just skip them?  There's a heck of a lot more to life than getting upset of bb posts. 


The things I do.
% of utilities, -phone, water, electric-mileage, internet, interest on auto payment, repair to car, cleaning equipment for office, repairs to office, cell phone, equipment-foot pedals, soft ware, supplies, paper, pens, etc.  I have often wondered if I could claim my PJs as uniform expense.
But apart from those things R they OK?

two things

Gas heater in the living room and an additional small heater for my hands, if they get cold.

I found it was less costly to install a gas heater than use the fireplace.


Thanks! I'm always trying to think of new things and though....
I thought this might be different to brake up the monotony! Thanks again!
Well there have been quite a few things
here and there, but I have always put off calling them cause they spend 10 minutes getting the spelling of my name right. I am like, "you can call me whatever you want to call me, just answer my question!"

The problem I am having now is that my internet will not allow me to access my bank site, but my cable company helped me with this problem. Since we went back and did a system restore and it still didn't fix the problem, they suggested that I am probably going to have to reinstal internet explorer. I left my CD at my Dad's though, so I will have to wait to try it and see if it works.

I am just wondering if I run into a problem again and I called if they would switch me to a US representative if I insisted. I remember awhile back someone posted that they did that with a credit card company or something. I think I am going to try it though.
That's if you want to be any of those things.
Really, why choose a career field solely based on potential income? Does money buy happiness? Doctors and nurses work very long hours. LPNs make $12 an hour, RNs $18 and up. Attorneys, well, who would want to be an attorney? Accountants here make $12 an hour to start out with a 5-year degree and CPA.
Have you tried these things? (sm)
Writing for the paper and making extra bucks by doing MT?

Maybe go back for your Master's and teach journalism in smaller colleges?

Possibly freelance for web sites? Check out elance.com and other freelancer sites. Lots need writing. Work that experience! Do you have a portfolio to show off?

Good luck :)
two things you can do

1.  Run Disk Cleanup - click Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup.

2.  If you use Internet Explorer, click on Tools | Internet Options. Click on the buttons that say Delete Cooks and Delete Files.

Close your browser, restart it, and that should resolve your problem.


Well, with the way things are going,
I think I would be happy to get anything.  Many companies are doing away with gifts completely due to the economy. 
I'm not willing to pay for something that will only tell me things I already know.
I know to use an Expander and templates/normals. I know to expand phrases, words, reports, etc. I know to stay away from the boards, let the machine get the phone, and treat this like a REAL job, but it's really hard to concentrate when there's nothing but garbage dictation on the system. I can see somebody else already took all the work from my primary, so I'm stuck with the lousy ESL secondary that I hate and won't make any money on. I can never make any money working for any national. They bounce you around so much that you never have the same dictators from day to day and can't keep account specs straight.
are doing these things....NM
x
Some of us can do 2 things at once, and well! nm
nm
They are okay though there were some things I did not like - sm
though it may not bother others. Need to have AIM on while you work so they can IM you....they can monitor you this way too, unless you know how to turn off that feature. Alway felt to me like Big Brother was watching. Did not like primary account, lots of short reports (I like them long with good line counts, not these dinky 10 lines things that take you 10 minutes to crank out); loved my 2nd and 3rd though, but rarely got to see them. Were considered an employee, nice, don't have to worry about taxes. Had to give a schedule and stick to it (granted you are an employee so you must do that), but flexible. Have to work 1 weekend day too. Get lots of faxes, sometimes too much. People are nice enough though, never had trouble with QA. Like I said just a few things rubbed me the wrong way, good enough place though. Good luck.
What are the things that keep MTs
I'm putting together a list of things that make it hard for MT to get decent line count. Can anyone give me their opinion?  TIA!
Could mean a lot of things......sm
Could mean that the QA department is backed up and your report just hasn't come up for review yet. Does your QA department have a higher level to which more difficult reports are sent for yet another listen? It could be that it has been held up in this way. I know how frustrating it must be for you not to have your feedback yet. I hope you get it soon. :-)
Here are some things.....
If you own your home, you can deduct taxes, mortgage interest, DSL or internet service, electricity, heating bills, anything you bought for your job, i.e, pencils, pens, a new chair, a new desk, highlighters, etc., and anything else that is related solely to your business at home.

Don't forget you can also deduct anything you donated. Every few weeks I "clean house" and donate all my goodies to Salvation Army. But make sure you get a receipt.


Several things...
For me personally, I was drwan to transcription for several reasons. I love the field of medicine and I love to learn something new every day. Those were the main things at first. Now, I love to be home for my children and am happy this job that I already love helps me do that!
getting things done
I have found David Allen's GTD approach very useful in organizing life, time, and goals.  You can do a search for "getting things done" on google.
As if 1 of those things isn't bad enough.
Yikes.
I never go to any of these things...sm
that way I'm not stuck with buying stuff I don't want/need/pay too much for.
Thank you both - these are exactly the things (sm)
I was talking about! This will be VERY helpful. Have a good day :)