Yes, health insurance is most certainly a business expense. That's why we can deduct it. We do not get it paid for like GM employee's do. I am in the 28 % income tax bracket. Our business expense is not much different than another business. It is at a different level. We have phone's, insurance, business insurance, health insurance, life insurance, some even carry ear insurance or hand insurance. We have stationary, stamps, envelopes, computers and computer garbage. We have plenty of office material that we use for our business such as stationary for our computers, computer ink, a desk, chairs, paper, pens etc., plus we have a whole shop full of tools and supplies. We have cars that we put a lot of miles on, or some of us do anyway. We have to also pay more for using this vehicle as a business car for insurance. The list is a lot more than I've listed. Look up articles on operating a business online sometime and the actual cost of running one. You might be surprised at what it really does cost us. More than most think. Jer From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Love Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 7:13 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] billing dilemma with pitch raises I live in a very expensive area but my expenses do not add up to 50% of my income! Yipes, something wrong there. Either you're not charging enough or you need to park the Lamborghini and give up the gentlemen's clubs for entertaining your customers. Of course, I'm assuming you are not talking about cost of goods sold but rather business expenses such as taxes, insurance, phone, office, transportation etc.. While health insurance certainly is expensive, presumably it's something that you would carry and pay for even without the business so it's hard to call that a business cost. The fixed costs for running this type of business should be relatively low unless you're running a full on rebuilding shop with employees and even then, if that's not paying for itself and more then you need to rethink your business model. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Gerald Groot Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 1:54 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] billing dilemma with pitch raises Hi Susan, We all have the basic same expenses. Vehicles, life insurance, health insurance,(very expensive either way you look at it) phones, computers and the rest. It may be on a different scale from one another but the concept remains constant. We have expenses for which we need compensation in one form or another. Not charging or making enough and then complaining about not being able to do so or not being able to make a living at tuning as some techs have, well, many factors come into play one of them possibly being a lack of business sense, or perhaps a lack of being in a good location for piano tuning (makes me wonder why then, one is living there in that case.) And of course, many over factors. My point is that either way we look at it, we must incorporate into our fee's our own expenses regardless of what they may be. Provided, we wish to remain in business and making a profit. Jer From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Susan Kline Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 4:42 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] billing dilemma with pitch raises On 10/31/2010 11:16 AM, Gerald Groot wrote: As I have said before, we have to make $100,000 a year in order to take home roughly $50,000 after taxes, insurance and the rest of our business expenses. Jer, someone at the lower end of the earnings scale will lose far less to taxes. Avoiding over-insurance can also give benefits, not just in lower premiums, but also in simplicity of life, at the expense of a little courage and willingness to accept risk. Living in a relatively low cost area can also bring an effective increase in wealth without an increase in tax burden. Putting in a whacking long day of too many jobs scheduled too close together (especially many days a week) can bring in more of the little continually shrinking dollars, but at the expense of rest and physical well-being and other interesting and varied activities; not to mention having the time and energy to enjoy and savor the experience of tuning and piano work done at a more leisurely pace. Of course, if you prefer earning a whole bunch of money and paying out a whole lot of it in expenses, that's up to you. To each his own. Susan Kline -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101031/117c086b/attachment.htm>
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