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From: tut%cairo@Sun.COM (Bill "Bill" Tuthill)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Self-Publishing
Message-ID: <128740@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 4 Dec 89 19:46:10 GMT
References: <25160001@hpcvia.CV.HP.COM> <25160003@hpcvia.CV.HP.COM> <2737@infmx.UUCP>
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In article <2737@infmx.UUCP>, cortesi@infmx.UUCP (David Cortesi) writes:
> 
> Unless they fixed the tax law since 1988 when I was last free-lancing,
> it is a LOT more complicated than you think.  At least then, books were
> capitalized income, not current income.  That is, you could note all the
> expenses that went into producing a book, but you could only charge them
> against the actual income produced by THAT book.  Conversely, income from
> a book could only be reduced by the expenses on that book, not any other
> expense.  This is as opposed to what you might expect, charging the expenses
> incurred this year against whatever income you made this year from any source.
> Naturally this creates a very complicated accounting problem for the
> free-lance writer/publisher, since expenses have to be kept in separate
> accounts by project and doled out over possibly years as income comes in.
> Various writers groups were trying to get the law changed without much
> effect the last I heard...

The tax law was changed in the Technical Corrections Act of 1988 (I think
that was the year).  Writers are often good at writing letters, and elected
officials pay attention to letters.  I doubt freelance writers had the clout
to do it, though-- I think the Hollywood studios paid the lobbyists who
actually made the difference.

So the tax law is just like it used to be: year by year.  If you lose money
researching a book that won't be finished until next year, you can deduct the
loss this year.

Bill