Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

Nice try..... Did you expect the when the average tax taken is lower that the refunds should be higher?

Originally Posted by Maurice Clark

    Hi Greg,

    Here is the relevant section from page 1 of the instructions for Schedule A.

    "No miscellaneous itemized deductions allowed. You can no longer claim any miscellaneous itemized deductions, including the deduction for unreimbursed job expenses. Miscellaneous itemized deductions are those deductions that would have been subject to the 2 percent of adjusted gross income limitation. See Line 16, later, for a list of other itemized deductions you can still claim in addition to the ones claimed using lines 1 through 15."

    You have not indicated where you found that list, but I suspect that it is for business owners, not employees.

    I stand by my statement.

    Maurice

Originally Posted by James Brown

I’m not a tax lawyer, but I am pretty sure that Maurice can not file a schedule C for small business expenses related to his professor job.  Maurice is a W2 employee, and W2 employees are obviously not sole proprietorships or small businesses entitled to file a schedule C.  So, Maurice is arguably screwed by the tax code, since his employer does not reimburse lots of work related expenses.  Even under the old code, the 2% AGI limitation screwed W2 employees who have unreimbursed expenses.  This seems to hit teachers pretty hard, and I would expect that their lobbyists are working on it, at least they should be.  Maurice, if I come across as unsympathetic, my apologies.  Special case was a poor choice of words, at least Rod thought so! 

If you were an independent contractor professor, if such a thing exists, you could deduct most business expenses on your schedule C.  Of course, if you were an independent contractor you would be paying many more expenses directly, office and IT for example. You also would not get paid leave, insurance, and so on.  So, in the end it’s probably best to be a W2 employee, if possible.

I own a business with 8 partners and about 40 employees.  We reimburse all business related expenses to the extent permitted by law.  Nonetheless Rod, I paid for my own Audi?.  My wife is a sales executive in the private sector.  She travels some of course, and all expenses are reimbursed to the extent permitted by the law.  I suppose this is one of the best things about private enterprise!

Originally Posted by Mel Maki

How am I hurt if tax laws make it easier for Richard to lease a GT3? It might make him a better person.