Tax Return

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I don't see the big deal about declaring laundry costs for our officiating clothes, after all they are uniforms that we would not wear anyother place except on the playing court or field. In fact I never declared laundry until my tax returns for 1996 and I did that on the advise of an IRS agent who was a women's college basketball offical from the Washington, DC, area.

MTD, Sr.


P.S. This agent also told me that while IRS rules are that a business must show a taxable profit Schedule C profit two out of every five years, there is other critera that the IRS looks at before ruling for to allow or not allow the taxable loss for more that three years out of every five years. The IRS looks at the type of business, the gross income for the year (is it typical for that type of business), is the amount of mileage being declared reasonable, etc. I have had a taxable loss for my officiating for at least the last six years; and I have taxable losses in my courier business every year that I have had it active, I make a profit based on real expenses but the mileage deduction alone wipes out my gross income every year. What the IRS looks for under this rule is the person who, say a stamp collector (his example not mine, I collected US and US First Day Editions as a kid) who goes to stamp collector shows almost every weekend, delcares only $500 in gross income every year, yet has travel expenses such that he as a taxable loss of over $10,000 every year; and he does this for years and years and years.

I know of only one sports official who has every been audited and that was because a fan didn't like how he officiated a game and turned him into the IRS, he had never filed a Schedule C and was hit with about $1,000 in back taxes, interest, and fines. It was me. And there is a good story about how he got into officiating, but it for another day.