Mileage Q's

[J. R. White]

I charge for excess mileage beyond a local radius.
J R W

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf
Of A440A@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 9:29 AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Re: Mileage Q's

<< You are a beginning technician (~2 yrs)
You are called to do a service call on a piano that is in a church that is 
approximately 80 miles away.
Do you;
A) Charge for mileage for the one way distance (82 miles)?
B) Charge for mileage for the round trip distance (164 miles)?
C) Don't charge for mileage at all?<<

        Greetings, 
        You have nothing to sell but your time,  when it is all gone, you
are 
not going to want to think you gave it away for nothing.  Why is a customer 
hiring someone from 80 miles away?  Is there no other tuner? If not, you are
in 
a good position to make a decent living.   If there are others, but the 
customer wants you, ditto. 
Churches can be good sources of new business, if you need more business that

far away from home, do what you have to to get the job.  However,  you will 
spend approx. $18 on gas, your tires, oil, insurance,etc will cost you
another 
$15. I think the IRS allows $.45 per mile, so that is $73 worth of
deduction.   
You will invest at least 2 1/2 hours in travel. So, your costs are starting 
to add up. 
       I would charge $ 300 for a tuning that far away. 
 
>>I realize that a church may or may not fall into the category of doing 
work at a discount rate.<<

     Depends on your level of need for new work.  

>>Also, how do you record the mileage for the ordinary tuning/repair 
trips you make throughout the year? (for tax purposes) >>

      I live dangerously.  I simply deduct the costs of 85% of my total
miles 
each year.  I don't log my miles, even though technically, I am supposed to.

This has worked for me for the last 28 years with nary a question or
problem. 
 If the IRS goes looking for money, I don't think they will start with the 
piano tuners. 
   How many of us have been audited, before? 
Regards,  
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
 
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