Millpond Festival in Bishop, CA for me this weekend, folks!: inyo.org/music/millpond-festival/schedule/ ....In the meantime, heres where my energy and your and my tax dollars (apparently mine arent enough, and ohhh I DO pay them, somewhat proudly) go thanks to my recent IRS audit. This got faxed today I shameless put my business out there to you, however I thought you should see this: ------------------------------------------------------------ Vance Gilbert ----------Ave Arlington MA 02474 phone ssn- 0000000 Internal Revenue Service Small Business and Self Employed 15 New Sudbury Street JFK Building 7th Floor, Room 750 Boston MA 02203-0208 fax # 877-863-1699 Dear Mr. Taveras, Thanks for your time. As we seemed to be about 4/5ths the way to buttoning this audit up until your call today, I wanted this on your desk before we discussed living expenses tomorrow. Heres a table napkin accounting of what I have as monthly living expenses, before deductions, to basically keep the lights on: Mortgage (my 1/2)...........................687 Health Insurance.............................530 Comcast cable, internet, etc............170 House cleaning (my 1/2)...................75 Phone..............................................100 Car note...........................................323 Dog food/grooming............................50 (hypoallergenic poodles. They require grooming or they matt and become ill) Habitat for humanity.........................~10 Heat/electric.....................................100 Food.................................................200 ----------------------------------------------------- Total...............................................2,245 Add to this whatever is left to: ~ pay off a piece of the credit cards ~ Chinese food once every 2 weeks ~ the occasional aviation book from Amazon ( I allow about $50 every 4 months for that) ~ occasional model airplane supplies = $150 year ~ Running shoes every 4 months = $100 ~ My partner and I spent together in excess of $15,000 trying to keep one of our dogs alive after liver failure 2011 - 2012. We succeeded, he is well, I did extra house concerts to help pay that bill, off of my booking agencys books, yet which I still claimed as income. But the credit cards still remained fat. ~ Our house is a small, 2 bedroom, 1000 sq. foot box ranch in Arlington, one of the smallest for miles around and definitely the smallest in our neighborhood, lest there be any question how we manage to own property and live here. ~ We have no dishwasher. Our largest TV out of the 2 is 18” screen. One is downstairs and is black and white Things to note: ~ I have no dependents ~ I have no large outstanding other debts other than mortgage, 2 credit cards, and my *car* ~ I buy nearly no clothes. Cargo pants, shorts, the old running shoes, T shirts are my daily wardrobe ~ I only travel for work. Our greatest vacations are with the dogs on Chebeaque Island off of Maine in a college friends cabin ~ I am a vegetarian, we garden vegetables, we often belong to CSA, and a student brings eggs each week = my protein source ~ occasionally when times are tight for me, my partner does the food, as she thinks it to be fair trade for me carrying cable, internet. So, if I can make that first $2800 - 3000 in the first few weeks, I call it a clean month ~ *car* is because this paynote is new as of 5/14 - my last car had 242,000 miles on it and was 12 years old. This $323 was what I could squirrel away as savings, but now is gone. I hope that makes for a brief history, maybe even puts the cap on, any question of my personal finances discussion. I realize the question comes from you/IRS looking at what I do, what I make, maybe even my so very minor stature and prescence in the music industry, and your assessment as to what is left to live on after expenditures and taxes. And here you have the answer - not much. Truth is, I/we live pretty low on the hog. And thats ok with us. I will still make myself available to discuss these details tomorrow. Regards, Vance Gilbert
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 23:36:13 +0000