July 16, 2013

  • Advice From Idiots.

    So I have two steady gigs to pay my rent—but I am always on the lookout for another client.

    Several months back, I noticed an ad in Craig’s List.

    The client was looking for 24/7/365 coverage…which generally involves a premium salary.

    They were offered “re-numeration in lieu of salary” claiming it would be tax free…and “free rent”.

    Um.

    I am not a tax expert…but bearing in mind that Wesley Snipes is serving a three year prison term in Federal Prison, for doing what a CPA said would save him on his taxes…(The CPA is still working…and NOT in jail) I tend to be WARY as all hell about taxes. I OVERPAY, rather than face the prospect of owing Uncle Sam. This sounded too weird to me…so I ignored the ad.

    Well, I was called about the client last week, so I started taking apart the offer.

    What I wanted was ANOTHER client…not one that would require me to give up my current clients.

    I’m quite happy where I live…so taking a job that REQUIRED me to live somewhere else was not a selling point. It wasn’t “free rent” either. The IRS would expect me to pay taxes on it…something the client didn’t seem to understand, or care about. The compensation was called “generous”.

    Oh, really? Let’s break it down. 2k a month…that’s 500 a week. Add the value of the “free rent”…call it 600-800 a month. That’s now 2800 dollars. But the expected hours were 13 hours a day, at least five days a week. That’s $5.50 an hour, almost three dollars under minimum wage. Worse…about a third of it HAS to go to taxes…When I am currently being paid 17 an hour as a minimum? Worse…my place of employment and my home would be the same place…lose the job, and lose your home.

    I did check out the whole “in lieu of pay” thing at the IRS website. No dice. If you are paid, you MUST pay taxes. It’s not ever “tax free”, no matter what you’re told. If you take the word of someone else, and IRS takes umbrage? You pay the fines, and interest in addition to taxes. IF they don’t decide you were evading taxes. (Which of course, You ARE.) So, I will take a pass on this one. I’m sure the lady isn’t evil, or bad—but her interest is finding someone else to help her family. If taking the job gets someone in trouble? Not her problem.

    So I will keep looking…Namaste!

     

Comments (2)

  • Good thinking. It’s nobody’s ass but your own if the feds decide to go Full Metal Asshole on you. Chances are they will. It’s like a sport for them, it distracts them from the fact that they’re sitting in a grey cubicle all day having their souls sucked out. What’s your job? 

  • @ZombieMom_Speaks - I work with special needs kids…they call it PCA—personal Care Assistant…it’s like being Mary Poppins, essentially…

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