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Thread: help!! with school and taxes

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    Newbie XxtrixiexX's Avatar
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    Default help!! with school and taxes

    if you dont pay taxes how do you put youself through school?

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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    Without financial aid, I would presume.

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    Newbie XxtrixiexX's Avatar
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    so just try to pay for it myself? cash? will i get caught up w/ the irs if i pay cash

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    Every college's financial office prepares a financial report to the IRS which includes the name and SS# of each student and the total amount they spent on tuition and fees. This began as a result of the congress making college tuition tax deductible. IRS computers will then attempt to match up the college's tuition report with a tax return on which the student's SS# appears. The IRS also has automatic data sharing with Federal student grant and student loan agencies.

    If you don't file a tax return yourself, the IRS computers may still find your SS# listed as a dependent on your parents' tax return. In that case, if the amount spent on tuition does not jive with your parents' total earnings (in other words if your parents don't report an income high enough to allow them to have afforded giving you the tuition money) an audit of your parents is possible. If such an audit were to occur, and if your own unreported income is discovered, it's also quite probable that the federal student loan and grant agencies may bill your parents to pay back loan/grant money you recieved for which the existance of your own income would have made you ineligible.

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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    Every year, I get a Form 1098-T (Tuition Statement) from my college. It goes to me as well as to the IRS. And it does have a section to mark how much of the tuition was paid by the individual, or how much was scholarship or grant money.






    (just click to donate FREE food to those in need...REALLY!)

  6. #6
    sun child
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    Hmmmm tuition is tax-deductible? Can we as dancers deduct tuition from our income if we pay for school ourselves? VERY INTERESTING...

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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    You cannot deduct tuition from your income.

    As a student, you are entitled to certain education credits. Which, actually, isn't a whole lot. But, no, it's not a deduction.

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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    ^ Yeah, you don't get to deduct tuition. I believe the max for the education credit in AZ (this year) is $2,200.

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    God/dess fancygirl's Avatar
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    wait, but what does that mean?

    what if i only pay 2,000 in tuition? is that a tax deduction, or what?

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    Newbie XxtrixiexX's Avatar
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    my parents dont claim me...so if i just pay cash would it be an issue?

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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    i also have a new car ... will that effect me getting audited?

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    well, since the school will have sent the IRS a report of the amount of money you spent on tuition, since the state motor vehicle dept will have sent the IRS a report of the value of the car you bought along with the name of the company that holds any lein i.e. car loan, since the IRS has a database showing the average costs of living (rent, food, utilities) in your zip code area, and since the IRS will be able to link all of these things bearing your social security number to a tax return and an amount of reported income bearing the same social security number, you can answer that question yourself !

    Actually, by my latest read, congress did reapprove a tax deduction for up to $4,000 per year in tuition payments (with certain income level restrictions).

    !
    Last edited by Melonie; 01-29-2007 at 04:19 AM.

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    God/dess VenusGoddess's Avatar
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by XxtrixiexX View Post
    my parents dont claim me...so if i just pay cash would it be an issue?
    Quote Originally Posted by XxtrixiexX View Post
    i also have a new car ... will that effect me getting audited?
    Yes, yes, yes. You don't get to live like you make $80,000 a year and only claim that you make $30,000 before deductions.

    It used to be that the extremely wealthy got audited to make them "stay honest" with their taxes. But, now with computers...it's that much easier for the IRS to put your numbers together.

    New car, tuition out of pocket, apartment, credit card bills, utilities, plus all of the money you claim that you spent for work, etc, etc, etc. Add all that up and you'll most likely trip the bullshit detector at the IRS. You may not get the audit notice this year, or next year, or the year after...but you will get it if you keep claiming you make pennies while buying expensive shit. And when you do, you'll be fined up the ass (interest on taxes owed, plus penalties). It's always just easier and cheaper to pay what you owe when you owe it and avoid that hassle of audits.

    But, of course, if you like...do whatever you want. Then come back here and post how good it felt to get the governments shoe shoved so far up your ass that you could lick the gum off the sole.

    Whatever you want.

  14. #14
    Yekhefah
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    ^^^ Don't hold back, VG, tell it like it is!

    I am continually amazed by the number of people who think they can get away without paying taxes. It will ALWAYS come back to bite you in the long run. Just suck it up and pay them, and demand that your elected officials reduce them!

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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    Yuck- You got a point. I think people just get greedy.

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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    One could say it is sine qua non of human behavior.

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    God/dess VenusGoddess's Avatar
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by Yekhefah View Post
    ^^^ Don't hold back, VG, tell it like it is!

    I am continually amazed by the number of people who think they can get away without paying taxes. It will ALWAYS come back to bite you in the long run. Just suck it up and pay them, and demand that your elected officials reduce them!
    Well, you know me...I hate beating around the bush.

    The funny thing is that people think that if they cheat on some taxes and only get "caught" on one of them, then that's ok. But, once you cheat on your taxes, you are forever flagged (they'll look at all future taxes that much closer) and it opens the window for the IRS to audit every single year they feel like. Started working when you were 18? Hope you saved those receipts!! Because now, they won't take your word for jack shit.

    Have a martini and enjoy the ride. bwahahahahaha

    Boy, I'm in a bitchy mood today...but, eh, stupidity never ceases to piss me off.

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    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    well, strippers are smarter than the IRS.

    don't forget that!

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    ^^^ no matter how smart or non-smart the IRS may be, one thing is for sure. Prior to a few years ago the IRS had no 'easy' way of knowing how much money a person was actually spending. The only automatic reporting made to the IRS was on the income side i.e. W2's and 1099's. Thus in the 'good ol days', in the absence of a W2 or 1099 being issued to a person with SS# such and such, the IRS had no automatic way to know that a person with SS# such and such even existed. That person was then free to spend whatever money acquired from whatever undocumented sources with an extremely low probability that their activities would ever be brought to the attention of the IRS. In that 'good ol days' scenario, in order for the IRS to 'reverse engineer' a person's income it was necessary for them to dispatch a veritable army of human agents to check with banks, brokerage houses, utilities, colleges, car and property registrations etc. Thus this sort of attention was reserved for 'special cases', with a well known 'special case' being Al Capone !

    However, with the advent of both the computer age and the post 9/11 anti-terrorist money laundering law, the IRS has now put automatic reporting requirements in place for essentially every common large expenditure item. State title agencies must report ownership and financial details when houses and cars are bought and registered. Banks and brokerage houses must report interest and dividend earnings. Colleges must report tuition payments. Every bank and merchant must report any cash transaction over $10,000 federal (down to $3,000 in some states). Every merchant and even the US post office must report the purchase of more than $1000 worth of money orders on the same day. Also, if given a reason to be suspicious, today's electronic communications also make it possible for the IRS to have a particular person's credit agency statement, bank statements, credit card statements, loan statements etc., as well as the average cost of living in a particular zip code area where that person resides, on their screen in less than 5 minutes. This additional info then allows the IRS to 'reverse engineer' a person's probable income from their actual expenditure records about 5 minutes after that.

    Put another way, the IRS now has two 'sets of figures' to work from instead of just one, with documented earnings in one column, and documented expenditures in the other column. Based on the assumption that anyone who can be proven to be spending more money than they have declared as income must be cheating on their taxes, the IRS now uses automatic comparison of reported earnings versus documented expenditures as a tax enforcement tool. The IRS also focuses its enforcement efforts towards people who are in particular businesses that have a history of underreported earnings. In the case of dancers, this is a double whammy since they fall instantly fall into into two 'high profile' categories ... cash businesses and adult businesses.

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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    When you're young, especially in a business like stripping where you're not exactly surrounded by positive role models, it's easy to get lulled into thinking you're immune from the "grown up" stuff. XxtrixiexX, it's sooo important that you don't get caught up in this mindset. Too often the information you get from coworkers inside the club is poor and illegal. You come across as more naive than conniving, and this is a common situation with many dancers-they turn a blind eye to what they don't understand, then find themselves in a mess they can't get out of. Read through this site and learn what you need to take care of to make stripping ultimately worth it.

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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by fancygirl View Post
    wait, but what does that mean?

    what if i only pay 2,000 in tuition? is that a tax deduction, or what?
    Yes. But not a straight up deduction of $2000 from your income.

    I had to:
    1. Enter my qualifying expenses (tution, books, lab fees, etc.) or $2,200. Which ever was LOWER.
    2. Enter total from #1 or $1,100. Whichever is LOWER.
    3. Add #1 and #2.
    4. Multiply #3 by 50%.
    So the max you can get for that credit is $1650.

    The other learning credit was 20% of up to $10,000. Which would be a max of $2000.


    It's form 8863 if anyone needs it.

  22. #22
    sun child
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    Default Re: help!! with school and taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    Actually, by my latest read, congress did reapprove a tax deduction for up to $4,000 per year in tuition payments (with certain income level restrictions).

    !
    Good to know.

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