My newspaper owes me $733.80 in mileage.

I long ago realized I can't do math. I used a calculator.

 

It is a fairly rural area, which tends to lead to the mileage adding up quickly. The main high school we cover plays in a league where one of the schools is close to 50 miles away. We have covered them home and away for football and basketball.

The problem is my publisher would be fine if we never left the office as long as people still bought the paper. Of course, they would not. One thing people like is being able to read a first-hand account of games they didn't want to travel to. I know one thing we're going to have to do when things start back up is cut back our coverage some, hopefully not so much that it kills our reputation.

This is probably just the worst of the things that have made me hate my job recently. There were always things I didn't care for, but in all, it was a good job. It's not anymore. It's almost intolerable. I'm just glad I've got a week of vacation coming up.

I've applied for other jobs. Pretty much any that have come up that are not entry level. It is a small newspaper (two on the sports staff), but I have been the SE for the last four years. Even if I could make a lateral move that would involve getting out of here, I'd be OK. But so far, I haven't gotten anything more than an initial phone call. I'd really like to be out of here (with my mileage checks in hand) before September when things get really busy.

 

At a former job, my boss would come in from time to time and say how hard it was to make payroll. We also had an incompetent ad staff that let people run ads for weeks on end without paying their bills.

My former paper is now out of business. Take that for what it's worth.

 

There is plenty of incompetence to go around and I certainly have my concerns.

 

Add my vote to the chorus. In your shoes, I don't leave the office to cover diddly-squat until I get a mileage check. That's just too much.

Chin up. There's something else out there.

 

And I'll chime in with the stay in the office until you get paid crowd.

And if people call to complain, tell them the truth, that your company will not compensate you for expenses to cover their little darlings' games. Heck, maybe the parents will take up a collection for you.

 

Random question about mileage: I know the government standard is 45 cents. I only get paid 30, so I get to claim this on my taxes for next year, correct?

(I'm only in my second year of filing independent returns and I'm sort of tax retarded, so forgive the dumb question.)

I know I couldn't begin to figure out how many miles I've driven from January-now but I could keep track for the second half of the year. How would I go about claiming this on my taxes next year?

 

Do you claim the standard deduction? If so, then you can't. And you probably wouldn't have enough to make it worthwhile anyway. If you've got a mortgage, etc., then maybe, but if you have that sort of thing, you're probably using a tax preparer anyway.

 

I believe you can claim the difference between what you get and the IRS rate (I'd check with a tax person to be sure). But as deskslave said, it usually isn't worth it unless you itemize.

 

What's the standard deduction? And no, I don't have a mortgage and I did my taxes last year doing Turbo Tax. But my cousin works for a CPA that does taxes, so if I need a form or whatever, she would know which one it would be.

15 cents per mile would be significant since that's a third of what I should be getting. And every little bit is worth it, right?

 

The IRS mileage rate is 59 cents. And the standard deduction is about $5,500 for singles.