Let me see your musician’s license

Comments

1. Marie Grass Amenta says

   November 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm

   I am a “free lancer” at this point in my career.  I sub for singers/ringers and choral directors.  I write program notes and teach privately, both in my home and my students’.  I conduct for festivals in our community and will conduct the local DIY Messiah in a month or so.  I am able to have many rehearsals for my chamber choir in my home, though we are growing, so this may last one more concert cycle. It never occured to me my town would charge me a fee for teaching in my home or writing–and I am writing two books, so this would also come into play. 

    

   My husband is a physician in private practice and we have “schedules” up the wa-zoo for our taxes and  have since he bought this practice in 1997.  I also occassionally fill in for the receptionist at his office and am considered an “employee” because I was the receptionist for a few years when he began the practice.  We pay taxes–ALOT of taxes. 

    

   Before folks get all huffy, most of us try to be honest about income.  But this is just as bad as banks charging fees for walking into your bank to talk to a teller.

    

   ~Marie

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2. Ronald Richard Duquette says

   November 13, 2011 at 6:59 am

   Sorry, Allen, but the requirement for a home business is NOT necessarily that the business is wholly conducted in the home, but that the home is the starting locus for the business.  I do a lot of travelling for mine, not unlike the fellow in question; yet I need a business license to conduct business from my home and, in fact, conduct a part of the business AT my home.  I can claim travel from the home “business” to the place where I actually conduct my “business”; but I can’t claim travel from my home to my church, because that “business” is originating at the church.  Unfortunately, while I can understand ths fellow’s frustration, and if indeed he has been paying his income earned on the 1099, it’s all the more frustrating – but it’s NOT according to the law, apparently, in California.  And, incidentally, here in Fairfax County (and I suspect elsewhere in Virginia, at least), there are very strict rules about how many people involved with the business can be physically at the site of the home office when conducted from a residence.  That’s because, unlike a business park, the locals didn’t buy their homes thinking there would be all sorts of motor vehicle traffic and noise and so on in their residential neighborhood.  My wife runs a home business – a jewelry company – out of the home, and she has had a party or two here – but we’re not talking about John’s “hopped-up” Amway clients.  Nonetheless, she has to do all the dirty paperwork.  It’s tough, I agree; but it’s the law.  Until it changes, ya gotta pay to play.  And remember, this is the other side of free-market capitalism – the government also has the right (and some would argue the responsibility) to find legitimate ways to raise income to pay for services.  You don’t want the tax, and you can get others to agree with you, you can work to get the tax/fee/whatever eliminated – but don’t bellyache when a service falls off the table.  I hear you cry, “Well, what service does he get for this tax?”  It doesn’t follow; a tax here may pay for another entirely unrelated service there.  Or it may pay for enforcement (God forbid!) of the law.  Irrespective, it’s what governments do to us for us.  I’ve never entirely understood rationally the “no-tax/no-government” approach that’s popular these days, and how it’s an inevitably one-sided thing.  “Don’t tax me,” the howl goes, “but do keep doing what governments are supposed to do” – and that’s really interesting to find out what exactly is thought that government is supposed to do for ME.  But that’s a whole ‘nuther issue.

    

   Ron

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3. Allen H Simon says

   November 12, 2011 at 9:03 pm

   It’s really infuriating when people give opinions without actually reading the article. The guy’s income gets reported on 1099s and he pays income tax on it. Don’t give me any crap about “unreported income”. And obviously real home businesses have to have business licenses. But if you go to be a guest conductor, it’s pretty silly to call that a “home business” — it’s done wherever the rehearsal is held.

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4. John Howell says

   November 12, 2011 at 7:16 pm

   Allen et al.:  Sorry, but the only legitimate questions here is whether the home business is a legitimate, legal business, which would mean reporting all income and paying all taxes due on that income.  And of course there are local laws as well as to whether businesses can be run out of private homes, although I have no idea what the legal wording would be.  And while for many years I DID run side businesses out of my home, I DID report all income and pay all taxes.  When we moved to town I inquired whether we needed a business license, and was told we did not.  Our next door neighbor, on the other hand, although a physician, ran one of those Amway businesses out of his home, with regular, noisy gatherings of his hopped up clients, whereas no one who came to our home ever bothered anyone else in the neighborhood.  There are legitimate REASONS for those local laws!

    

   As to whether or not someone is an “independent contractor,” that’s something your accountant needs to figure out, but it doesn’t change the basic equation.  It all needs to be reported on Schedule C for your income tax–which of course also entitles you to deduct all legitimate costs of doing business against that income.

    

   Sorry, but no sympathy here.  Sounds as if someone may have been getting away with unreported income, and now it’s catching up.  But if the unnamed blogger doesn’t think it’s right, that’s when it’s tme to hire a lawyer and get some actual, legitimate advice–which might not be what he wants to hear.

    

   All the best,

   John

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5. Ronald Richard Duquette says

   November 12, 2011 at 1:37 pm

   I’m sorry, but I don’t have a lot of sympathy here.  I run a business out of my home; I have to pay the $35/year Fairfax County requires for a business to do business, in addition to all the other expenses involved with running the business.  We look to the municipalities to provide services, which they do to a greater or lesser degree, but which include among others, road maintenance, fire fighting, policing, etc.  The only way that happens is via taxes and fees.  Steve is able to get to his guest conducting and clinician jobs because, among other things, the roads work – maybe not as well as we’d like, but they do – and the taxpayers of the city/county/municipality in question had to fork over taxes for that.  That’s part of the cost of doing business.  Now, the argument that retroactively he should be paying for 2008-2010 is a little over-the-top, and it sounds like merely pursuing an administrative judgement; nonetheless, you don’t pay taxes or other fees that are due (and remember that little line about “ignorance of the law”) will allow the municipality to penalize you.  Arguing that because musicians don’t make a lot of money in a forum full of musicians will get you sympathy, but not much else:  the law still stands.  Don’t like the law?  Get it changed by mobilizing musicians in similar circumstances to seek to exempt musicians and other similar artists.  But please remember:  cities, counties, states, unlike the Federal government, don’t get to print money – they MUST balance their budgets, often in accordance with state constitutions and other laws.  Therefore, they have to pursue this sort of thing more vigorously.  The argument that independenct contractors already have to pay extra income tax also sidesteps the fact that independent contractors also MADE more income – and yes, I understand that it isn’t enough to retire to the Bahamas on, but it is MORE than is otherwise drawn.  I appreciate that this tends to have a chilling effect; and I’m no tax lawyer; but if this fee has to be paid, he gets to write it off as business expense as well – I do.

    

   This is the cost of free-market capitalism.  You pay to play.

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