<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Jul 23, 2006, at 4:56 PM, Willem Blees wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Chris.</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">You are right that I have a different perspective on building, and<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">operating, my business. I'm not saying what you are doing is wrong,<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">because obviously it works for you. But I have a different approach to<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">dealing with my customers. Maybe the diffrence is an "East Coast"<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">mentality as opposed to "Midwestern" approach to doing business, but I<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">could never, in good concience, do what you are doing.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Wim<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV><DIV>Ah, mileage. We FTE's don't get it, do we? (pun, um, intended?)<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Current Federal deduction, I believe, is 44.5¢/mile and AAA recently calculated that Americans are spending an average of 55¢/mile on transportation. You Joes who have a home office deduction get to deduct every inch you drive. Some of you will have $20K to $30K in mileage deductions. FTEs can only deduct mileage for outside jobs if they moonlight. You wind up with a free vehicle and claim it as a cost of doing business. We FTEs pay for that cost of doing business after taxes, and after other deductions many of you think are free to us. Maybe that's why Wim and Chris have different perspectives.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Perspective: When you're a 37.5 or 40 hour FTE tech at an institution, mileage takes on a different perspective. If you're doing daily tunings after work, you're only going to get one in at best. You've already got an hour and a half commute time per day to the school, and add that to a full day and you're already at 9.0 to 9.5 hours for the day, so yes, Chris, we're working outside the 9 to 5 time frame here.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>(OK, those of you who are getting FTE pay for half time hours don't count -- you're doing that under the table and our bosses don't know that)</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>As far as I see it, the Income Tax deduction is a gift for business when you consider that I"m driving on my dime to work for $14/hour versus driving on a 44.5¢/mile deduction for $60(and up)/hour for the same skill. Heck, I did over $18K in outside work last year and the government still owed me money in April. My accountant projects I can make (gross) as much as $25K to $30K above my university salary before I'll start owing money, and I'm withholding as little as possible (not that I have that much energy, mind you). At least the IRS understands CAUTs don't make enough to support a family on, but I digress.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>That said, I usually charge a "round trip" fee based on one way mileage for folks more than 20 miles out of town (I'm happy with the deduction for anything inside of 20 miles - that's like getting to deduct my commute mileage). They are living cheaper by being that far out and expect that some services might cost them more in return. My mom was paying an old country tooner a hundred bucks to drive 45 miles (one way) to tune her piano in the economically and culturally barren bowels of South Georgia 25 years ago, and that was sharing mileage with at least two other jobs. So, unlike some, I don't see that as punishment I am occasionally asked if I've charged enough for driving so far out. When I go out on Saturdays on distant drives, I charge a flat fee for the estimated round trip. For example, I've been charging $60 to drive to Augusta (Georgia, where the Masters is played, which is about 60 miles down the interstate from my home) and divide that by the number of clients I am able to schedule. In many cases, they're winding up paying me less than some of the local dealerships there charge. I can go gross up to $500 or more in a day, I'm happy with that, and the IRS gives me a deduction for 44.5¢/mile regardless of what I've charged the customer, and that's money I wouldn't get to keep working as an FTE for the University of South Carolina. It's like an extra payday when I wind up with $4000 or $5000 worth of mileage come tax time, and that's just for part time mileage. (Man, if we could only deduct commute mileage -- I mean, what's the difference? the cost of going to work is the cost of going to work is it not? Especially if you're earning 1/3 the money for doing it?)</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I have one very special client who pays me $100 to drive the 90 plus miles one way to her house plus the tuning fee to tune her piano 4 times a year. As long as she's happy with that, I'm very happy. (She usually even tips me on top of that -- but she is one of a kind). I usually wind up with at least $200 for about a 6 hour day in which I've tuned one very nice piano, and an $80+ IRS deduction toward my car payment to boot, and that is more than I can say for my university job. (Give me 50 or so more like her and I'm outta here!)</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Jeff</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Jeff Tanner, RPT</DIV><DIV>University of South Carolina</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>