And my situation is a little bit more complicated. Maybe somebody can answer these questions, too?
I worked for W-2 almost all year and then I started my own little business on March of 2007, so then I worked for 1099. My annual income with W-2 and 1099 is around 000. My wife goes to college and she pays for her education and books herself and her income is way less, than mine, and she works for W-2. Besides that I got a loan on a car which I mostly use for my business, and I’ve got many other deductions I can claim. The total for my deductions is around 000. My other questions are:
- Is it better for me and my wife to file separately or jointly?
- Can I deduct car payments? Or I can only deduct insurance, miles, interest I paid and other expenses?
- Is it worth going to some private tax adviser? Where can I expect more help from: H&R Block, or some retired IRS agent?
- I was told that if I deduct more that 40% of my income, it’ll be very suspicious. But what if I really can?

A government health insurance plan sounds nice and pretty, but when you consider a little bit of history concerning the government and its regulation of the private insurance market and consider basic economics it’s pretty darn clear that as time goes on more and more people will be forced into government run plans.

First, the lie that the government wishes to just "compete" with private insurers is complete BOGUS. The federal (and state governments) already heavily regulate the private insurance market. Over the years governments (both state and federal) have required insurers to cover more and more procedures, many which have nothing to do with health thereby forcing customers to shell out more money instead of just simply allowing consumers to customize their plan….you know kinda like how you do with other insurance.

Also doctors spend around 30 billion per year (according to CNN) on malpractice insurance. So if we could have some tort reform of some sort to reduce law suit abuse.

But the point I REALLY try to make to people is this….Private insurance companies need to at least break even to keep themselves in business. Government does not. Government can afford to operate at a loss because it has an endless supply of tax revenue and the ability to borrow money from sales of bonds or by monetizing the debt with the Federal Reserve. Now ask yourself this….if you were a business of some sort, and you were competing against someone who could afford to operate at a loss indefinitely don’t you think you would have a hard time competing against them? They could afford to continually undercut you (at their loss) and eventually put you out of business. So as you can see the government is NOT competing against private insurers in a FREE market because
1) they regulate their competitors already and 2) they can afford to lose as much money as they want since they do not need to make a profit or even break even to stay in business.

Now some people would say that as long as they can afford to give people cheap medical care then it shouldn’t really matter if they operate at a loss….Well ok, but there is one problem with that and that is supply

If the government sets prices artificially low then their will be an increase in demand for those services. The system will not be able to handle everybody in a timely manner which will lead to long waits and rationing. Now to be clear there already is rationing today just as their is rationing of every product and service we buy….the rationing factor is the price. There are ways to lower the price using Free market solutions instead of the heavy coercive hand of government such as:

Tax deductions for health savings accounts that can be used towards deductibles or insurance premiums, tort reform, allowing private insurance to compete in a free market unlike what it has endured over the years as increased government regulation has increased the price.

I’m starting to ramble, but the main point I wanted to put out for debate is that government is NOT competing against private insurers because it is government that is setting the terms of competition and not the market and also the government can afford to operate at a loss while private insurers can’t. Talk about a monopoly!

Please if all you can say is a bunch of rude or ignorant things then please don’t comment.

Not sure where to look this up, so if anyone has any guidance it’s greatly appreciated.

I am a 1099er at a spa. I’m about to have a baby so two other people at the spa are throwing me a shower at our place of business. As a thank you I’d like to give them both gift certificates for somewhere. Although it’s a small amount, every little bit helps. Can I claim the as a tax deduction?

My husband worked as a 1099 employee for a few months and the little bit of income he received from it are killing us on our taxes. Apparently the government considers him a business owner even though he does not have a business and worked at one company doing one job and was hired permanently after the first few months. Anyway I’m wondering if there are any deductions we can possibly take to lower the tax burden? He didn’t work out of our house, so we can’t deduct that but I’m wondering about mileage. Not sure what that would amount to.