Some Days I Hate My Job
 

Today is one of those days:( We get a letter from the IRS, one of our entertainers owes them money, and now they are going to garnish his wages:(
He is a good guy, a single dad with a special need child, so it isn't like he can work as much as others, but he is a great entertainer and an all around good guy. More of the government screwing the little guy.:mad:

Sorry to hear about this, Byron. I had a crappy day as well but not in the same way.

Maybe your other entertainers could have a benefit to help him get caught up with the IRS?

Do entertainers get paid without Federal income tax withholding?

W9s, contract labor. Different from band to band & place to place.

The injustice. What are they going use? Parsley? Sprig of chives? Dont tell the inhuman b*stards are going use the twist of chile?

Perhaps, being such a great guy, he shoulnt pay tax. He should get the "good guy" exemption. Is that what you are saying?

The way i read it, if he paid his tax like you do and I do, he wouldnt be having a having a problem with the Tax Man. Would he?


Government screwing the little guy. Get a grip.

Yes, this coming from the over seas liberal who defends terrorist. Ask any musician, or single father of a spacial need child what is like to make a living in that biz:mad:

So should be exempted from paying his tax - tax on money that he has earned and is considered at law to be taxable income (otherwise he wouldnt have the tax problem, would he) - on the basis of:

-he is a good guy
-he is a struggling musician
-he is a single father
-he has a special needs child
-he is your bud

Which of these earns him a tax exemption, racer?

I have to pay my tax. You have to your tax. Most on this board meet their personal responsibilities- which includes paying their taxes in accordance with the law.

Why should this guy get an exemption. Sounds to me like your wanting help a "musician", an irresponsible single father to avoid tax and his personal responsibilies. Tell him to get a real job.

You sound pretty much like a liberal to me.

Hmm, I sympathize with him.

Saw on the news tonight a woman, single mother, works 10-10 to provide. Child got sick, she owes $200,000 in medical bills.

Are you suggesting that maybe the we should have social programs to help these people out?

Fact is, he will be paying, the IRS & my CPA will make sure of that. He is one of these guys who just had a run of bad luck the last few years.:(

Excellent work, comrade.

Your countrymen thank you in ensuring that this tax cheat is meeting his legal obligation.

............................

I'm a good guy and I have two kids. I think I'll stop paying my taxes too.

Well, it doesn't mean you cheated on your taxes just because the IRS comes after you. I've had the state send me a letter saying I made a mistake and owed them another $200 or whatever. I don't think I made that mistake and I know I didn't intentionally do anything wrong. No biggie, I just mailed them a check. But when you make big money or have irregular income, you can find out long after the fact that you're in trouble with the IRS. Why do you think they tell you to keep your returns for three years? Not saying eveyone shouldn't be straight on their tax returns, but honest mistakes do get made. And the IRS makes their fair share of them too.

Absolutely true. So if such a genuine mistake were to happen, and they do, does your Taxation Office in the US first provide any advice, warnings, demands, court judgements or like- or do they just move straight to garnishee before proviing any opporunity to correct a genuine mistake?

I think it has to get pretty far before they garnishy your wages (Fletch reference).

However, our tax code is so ridiculous, that you can call the IRS for help, they can give you the wrong answer and you can be prosecuted for following their advice. The onus is ALWAYS on the taxpayer. It's the one area of our system where you're truly guilty until proven innocent.

This guy's name isn't Willy Nelson, is it?

Yes, garnishee is usually the last resort…..So it seems fair to sugest he has had ample opportunity to pay the tax he owes.

Racer has indeed done a great service by handing this tax cheat in.

Musician. He probably has an arts degree from Berklee. Tell him to use a condom, cut his hair, stop using drugs, get a real job and and quit his whining. Racer you done good.

Oh, there's a very long list of famous musicians who've had run ins with the IRS. I kinda feel for them, since they are paid from so many different sources, with income in many states and countries and are pretty far down the food chain after commissions are taken out of the original checks. Managers, lawyers, agents, everyone gets a cut before the musician ever sees dime one and he's supposed to keep track of it all. It's not a W2 kind of job. I remember the Rolling Stones canceling the UK leg of a tour until after the change of the calendar year because of a $17 million tax liability had they played there on the wrong day.

"The way i read it, if he paid his tax like you do and I do, he wouldnt be having a having a problem with the Tax Man. Would he? "

I don't know the details, but this looks like a typical case of "contractor" vs. "employee".

Back in '92, I knew a self-employed contractor who busted a butt trying to get work when very little was to be had. Made around $14,500 gross and netted less than $7,000. Exemptions and standard deductions were more than enough to knock his taxable income to $0, so no taxes, right?

Wrong - he had to pay 15+% for self employment tax on the net business income, and he couldn't afford it. It ended up in court, where he lost and had to sell some of his equipment to pay the tax + penalties + interest.

It doesn’t matter why he owes tax. The point is he owes tax. And he clearly hasn’t taken any opportunity afforded him to meet or make good on his legal commitment, so the Tax Man has slapped a garnishee on him.

This is seen by racer as the Gubmint bashing the little guy.

I wonder- would Racer be happy to pay more tax to make up for the tax his buddie doesnt pay ( on account of him being a good guy n’all?) Better- racer could just all the guys tax- he seems to think it OK for the rest of the tax base to pay it, afterall.

The fact is that if his employee doesn't pay, they can sieze the assets from his business, especially if he doesn't do the witholding.

Yes, everyone should pay their taxes, and yes some people do not seem to make enough money to live and pay up. It can get really ugly when a few thousand from years ago turns into more than someone makes in a year. This happened to an employee of mine this year, and it turned out that he didn't even owe 3/4 of the money, as they were guestimating.

It was still up to him to prove it though.

Byron, is a "benefit" feasible for your bud? I know lots of local musicians, and they are always having "Sunday afternoon benefits" to help others out (typically for medical expenses, etc.). I wouldn't dare "judge" someone whose circumstances I don't have a clue about, but I do know that sometimes people get into situations that are "difficult", and I do have a "bit of compassion" for others that are less fortunate than I have been. Good luck...

From time to time many of us run into situations where we need to decide which bills we pay and which we don't. It isn't so much as we expect the bills that get back burnered to simply dissapear, but that we may need a little extra time to get to them, possibly because of extraordinary circumstances in our lives (e.g. medical bills, job layoff, tuition, etc).

I don't think that Byron is suggesting this guy should get a pass so much as it isn't fun to be the messenger for the IRS to a personal friend/colleague who may be working to get his head above water and may just need a little more time to make good on his debts.

Hopefully nobody reads into this that I think this individual should get a pass. I pay my taxes, I assume you all pay yours, it sucks but its our collective responsibility. Its what is keeping this cobbled together government of ours almost running (that and debt).

Don't get me started about the immenant tax increase I am going to be seeing in the coming years and the fact that the proceeds will like be handed out to those in the lowest bracket in the form of a credit/check! Got to love socialism. (I'll save that for the political forum)

That is precisley what Byron is suggesting. Gubmint screwing the little guy. So Racer's bud needs a tax break. Presumably, you should pay Racer's bud's tax.

So lets see. This guy earns, say $10,000. Tax on that is $1,000. He pockets/spends the 10k- he is a single father, dont you know. Gubmint says he owes $1000. He obvisulsy hasnt paid the $1000, so the are enforing payment. Racerr says this is gubmint shafting the little guy. Typical liberal.

Stick the farker in jail for tax fraud, many would say.

...but not the only one. Just ask the boys Guantanamo bay.

I'm confused. First, let's take the point that he owes back taxes. That is more than just not paying quite enough of a percentage as a W-9 earner. You can make up the difference at the end of the year, admittedly with a penalty if the numbers are too far off, but you can make it up.

So this guy owes BACK taxes which means he deliberately did not pay the correct amount when he filled out his tax return (or didn't file at all).

Everyone has to pay taxes, I understand he has a special needs child and I sympathize with that, but how does that exempt you from your responsibility as a citizen?

love ya racer but stewie is right on here. typical contractor issue.

fact is many contractors who receive the full gross don't have the discipline to 'pay da man'. many w2 earners would be no different given the opportunity. it's not helped by the fact that he's probably paying SE tax on his entire net.

that said if i were in a tight spot and my son required $$$$ medical or psychological care you can bet uncle sam's name would fall below his on the list of who gets paid!

I'm sure your friend paid the bills as they came up. He meant to pay the taxes but the extra money was just never there like it was supposed to be. The fact he's taking care of his child is commendable, I am sure that's not easy and can put the parents in difficult positions sometimes. That alone makes him worthy of some help.

Depending on what kind of taxes they were, maybe you can help him refile returns to lower his liability. He's a musician, how much can he owe? And Income is not the same as net, surely he has related expenses, maybe he didn't take them all. He's probably like the Joe the Plumber and doesn't understand how the tax system works.

Anyway, good luck with it.

Because he was too cheap to pay an accountant a few hundred bucks to help minimize the tax bill.

Racer ask your accountant to look into an OIC for the guy. Takes a couple hours or so to do the forms involved and you pretty much know the answer your gonna get ahead of time (ie don't file it and start paying if the figures don't work).

Sorry to hear about your bud, Byron. I have no idea what his situation may be, other than what you have told us here. It sounds like he may be struggling financially, being that he can't work as much as other entertainers and has a special needs child to take care of. I cannot imagine the hardship of having to choose taking care of that child or paying other bills, taxes included. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. It appears others are not.

Most notable seems to be our old friend stuart the troll. Just ignore him. Almost guaranteed he could really give a rip about your buddy, and is only using this as a vehicle to dig at you. Don't let him. He has a demonstrated history of this here on PPOT, apparently taking some weird childish delight in antagonizing others. He "contributes" in no other way. You and I (among a few others) appear, for whatever reason, to have made his "A" list. I guess we should be flattered, or something. It's not often we can become the objects of another's attentions from halfway around the globe. Keep up the good work.

Those Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Guardians are there by choice, they're not guilty....oh, maybe you meant the criminals held in prison; 'nother discussion I guess.

Yeah, this thread had gone on too long without blaming Bush for something.

Joe the Plumber plays in a band too? That guy gets around.

Tax cheats suck.

Some of you guys are heartless imo. Before I recently lost my job, I paid more in taxes that "Joe the plumber" makes in a year (what a bs "con job", diversion, that whole smoke screen is :(), so I've always paid my fair share of taxes. That said, if I was struggling to make ends meet, and had a kid (I don't), it would be a no brainer if I had to choose between medical care, food, etc. for my child or Uncle Sam. If the guy is REALLY trying (and it sounds as if he may be), give him a freakin' break. Judge not...

personal responsibility - yes
compassion - yes
advice/guidance about how to make things work out - yes
shifting blame - no
making excuses - no
Joe the Plumber - ROFLMFAO!!!

I suppose you could always ask if it's okay to send the money directly to the Wall Street CEO of your choice, bypassing the IRS entirely if it makes ya feel better...

Agree 100% with Jim Richards post above.

It really surprises me that many of you that vehemently consider yourselves "conservative" are so quick to jump on the "poor guy" bandwagon.

I understand he has troubles, I understand that it may be difficult for him to make ends meet. What does that have to do with him paying his tax bill? What's the difference between him having trouble and many of the poor in this country that the "conservatives" are so quick to throw under the bus and claim personal responsibility?

Where's the personal responsibility here? Are you just picking the other side because Stuart is arguing one way?

I'm truly baffled.

There is a balance between compassion and a demand for personal responsibility, Rick. We all strike a balance somewhere. We don't know all that much about this guy, but we do know Byron vouches for him. That says something.

Everyone is deserving of the benefit of the doubt. At least until it becomes apparent that they are simply not trying; that they never have and never will. There are plenty of those out there. Until this guys demonstrates he is one of those, he just might be deserving of our compassion. I think we all have a different threshold for that.

Rick is right. Higgy, KC and others would not be so kind were the story simply laid out as 'i know a guy who's wages got garnished'.

posts on this thread are evidence that the presentation affects the judgement. that's not something i'd be proud of.