I have been doing my own tax returns for about 40 years, often with
professional help. Here are my findings:
1. Get the relevant IRS pubs and really study them.
2. Keep records. Keep records of records.
3. If you ask six different accountants a question, you may get six
different answers.
4. Ditto six different IRS agents.
5. I do my music expenses on a Schedule C, also show music income here
unless it's an employee/W2 situation, then it goes on the 1040, but I deduct
all expenses on Schedule C. Some years I have a profit, some years a loss.
6. I have been audited several times on various issues but never on the
music Schedule C stuff. I must be doing something right, or the IRS is lazy
and they know it's something of a gray area...maybe if the amounts were
larger they would question that aspect...they never have (knock on every
available piece of wood).
7. I deducted the cost of my organ over 7 years using the straight line
method, and it's a little complicated at first, and the IRS instructions are
from Mars, but it's worth it. See item 1 above.
8. Laws are interesting inventions...sometimes it isn't what the law
says, it's what it's interpreted to say. Every day, at all levels of
government, laws are enacted which are later determined to be
unconstitutional, etc., and then they're thrown out or changed. Law
drafters/writers know this (including IRS rulemakers), it's the way our
system works...shoot first, ask questions later. So I pass on some advise
I've been told a few times: go ahead and do it, then let them tell you you
can't...be prepared to back up your deductions and contentions, be prepared
to lose and have to pay anyhow, but go for it.
Noel Heinze
Asheville, NC