On Mar 20, 12:40*am, vmoel...[at]austin.rr.com wrote:

- quote -

I think I see the problem. You effectively have three sources of
income (day job, retirement, and church), and the tax rates being
progressive, your tax rate on the second and third ones is much higher
than it would be if they were your only source of income.

You will probably have to have something like 30% deducted from each
of the retirement check and the church to avoid being under-withheld
each year. When you got your raise at the school, they had no way of
knowing that this would kick you into such a high bracket, because
they can't see your other income.

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On Mar 17, 11:29*pm, PeterL <po.n...[at]gmail.com> wrote:
- quote -

I am not a lawyer but I think the school
district owes you a lot of money. I'd check with an employment
lawyer
to see about your rights.


You may well be right, however, I do not have another job to go to at
this point, and if I see an employment lawyer about my rights, I may
well find myself unemployed and unemployable, or at the very least,
stuck with a job where my boss, his boss and everybody in the district
hates my guts. At this point, I just want to get the tax liability
problem fixed and figure out some graceful way to bow out of this job
during the summer, after my contract expires and after I get another
job lined up. I adamantly refuse to sign up for another year at Camp
Runamuck. I may have to start teaching piano if I can't get another
job.

Also, I'm not sure how I'd go about getting money from the district
because it was my idea originally to play for the school play without
charging them (I did not know this was illegal); I knew it would mean
working extra hours unpaid, but I had no idea that my working
conditions would be so bad. I spent nearly a month, every weeknight
from 4 til 9 or 10, in a freezing orchestra pit (I finally bought my
own portable heater), plus I found out that the music director, who I
have to work with every day, is a perfectionist whose worst qualities
come out when under stress, plus we had to use handwritten music that
had been written over and then xeroxed time and again, so it was very
hard on my eyes (at age 56, I'm already into trifocals).

Thank you for writing, however, I appreciate your taking the time to
educate me a bit on this.

vhm

========================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
Please trim the post to which you are responding.

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On Mar 18, 1:34*am, "Phil Marti" <prm20...[at]verizon.net> wrote:
- quote -

surprise
to you. Have you been making estimated tax payments to cover your
teaching?
Are you claiming too many withholding allowances at your W-2 jobs?
There's
a structural problem in your tax planning that will pop up year after
year
if you don't fix it.

-----
Well, here's what happened, in a nutshell. This is my 2nd year
working as a high school choral assistant. For tax year 2006 (last
year), I ended up owing $2,000 because the district treated me as a
contractor and refused to withhold anything. I set aside some money
with each paycheck, so I was able to pay off IRS last April.

Trying to avoid this happening yet again, I set aside $200/mo last
fall plus some Christmas money my mother gave me, so I now have just
under $2,000 at this point (mid-March). However, I used TaxCut to do
my taxes, and lo and behold, the raise I got from the school district
put me into a higher tax bracket, so now I owe $4300. Last month, I
consulted my church's accountant, and she advised me to divide the
$4300 by 10 (there were 10 months remaining in this year) and adjust
my income checks accordingly by deducting at least $400 more per
month, so I got her to deduct $200 more per month from my church check
(I'm an organist there) and I called my state retirement agency and
got them to deduct $200 more per month from my retirement check.
Hopefully, I can also set aside another $500 or so just in case I need
to for taxes next year. I'm also planning on taking on piano
students, so I will need to set aside 20% of my self-employment
earnings from that venture to be right with IRS next year.

Thanks for writing.

vhm

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<vmoeller[at]austin.rr.com> wrote:

- quote -

Prior responses addressed this as a question regarding charitable
contributions. It sounds to me more like you're thinking of some sort of
"opportunity cost" deduction against your other income. In either case, the
answer is no.

Of more concern to me is the $4,000 balance due that seems to be a surprise
to you. Have you been making estimated tax payments to cover your teaching?
Are you claiming too many withholding allowances at your W-2 jobs? There's
a structural problem in your tax planning that will pop up year after year
if you don't fix it.

--
Phil Marti
Clarksburg, MD

--
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On Mar 17, 6:59*pm, vmoel...[at]austin.rr.com wrote:
- quote -


When your job "requires" you to donate time, it's not donation
anymore. Employers can't require employees to "donate" time as a
condition for employment. I am not a lawyer but I think the school
district owes you a lot of money. I'd check with an employment lawyer
to see about your rights.

========================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
You will find that for income tax purposes, the value of your time
and services cannot be deducted.

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vmoeller[at]austin.rr.com wrote:

- quote -

Deduct, like a charitable deduction? Sorry, no. As in a prior thread
here, donated time is not a deductible item. I hope the show went well.
Joe

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I am a music contractor for a local high school. My position is
renewed annually. I was hired last fall with the understanding that I
had to provide free piano accompaniment for the high school's annual
musical. I agreed, based on what I had done during the 2006-07 school
year, which amounted to 2 or 3 extra 2-hour rehearsals per week for 3
months (Nov-Jan) until 2 weeks before opening, and then rehearsing
nearly every night for those 2 weeks. I figured I could live with
that again.

However, THIS year (07-08), the show was Peter Pan, which required
rental of a massive wire-set Peter, Wendy, et al, used to fly around
the stage. The set was available for only a very short window of time
which meant that our 3 month preparation time was cut in half, and I
ended up doing 2 or 3 extra 2-hour rehearsals per week for November
and December, and then rehearsing nearly every night for 1 month.
This cut into my piano teaching time, and I lost about $400 on that.
So not only did I not get paid for my overtime work, I actually lost
money on the deal. This won't happen again next year!

So, is there any way possible for me to deduct my unpaid overtime work
in November and December (6 weeks at 5 hrs/wk for 30 hours total,
times my hourly wage of $15/hr = $450)? I owe $4,000+ to IRS this
year, and I desperately need deductions.

Thanks,

VM

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >