My newspaper owes me $733.80 in mileage.

Agreed. No more traveling until they pay you. That's ridiculous what they owe you.

 

...once again, I'm throwing out my tax idiocy. If the IRS takes out less/more than 5,500 from my paychecks, which would it be to file for the difference? (Also, I've been drinking, so my brain's not exactly at full power here. Why didn't I become an accountant, aside from the fact that I suck hardcore at math?)

 

Whatever amount is held out is the estimated tax you owe. It has nothing to do with deductions.

Your standard deduction is $5,500. So if you make, say, $30,000 in a year, that means your taxable income decreases to $24,500. You also get $3,150 (roughly) per exemption (one for yourself, one each for any dependents). So if it's just you, that would go down to $21,350. That is then your taxable income. (In a really simplified form.)

So you then calculate your tax owed, and any difference between that amount and the $5,500 withheld would be either what you owe or what you get refunded.

To claim that mileage, then, you have to itemize deductions, rather than taking the standard deduction. So unless you also have mortgage interest, etc., it just isn't going to make sense to do that. If your deductions only total, say, $4,000, you don't get to take the extra $1,500 to make up the difference.

To do it with the mileage alone, you'd have to have driven 20,000 miles for work.

 

Trust me---the problems at your shop are much more severe than your backlogged mileage due, and I don't need to know anything else about your company than what you say here. This is not a jump-to-idiotic-conclusion statement made kneejerk. It is based on personal experience.

That's just one symptom. Doubtful you will see a penny of that, and giving them some sort of ultimatum of not traveling anymore won't win you any brownie points.

It's serious resume time.

 

Please take the advice Clutch and I have given you. SEND OUT THE RESUMES, YESTERDAY!!!! Good luck.

 

But it's beyond the point where he should care about earning brownie points. The company doesn't care to compensate him, so why should he care what the company thinks?

When he is traveling to an event on his dime, that is money out of HIS pocket. Money he should not be spending.

He's not even owed $733.80. It's actually more, when you count interest.

 

Agreed, Baron, but we all know that if this employee doesn't travel for an assignment, then someone else will. Combination of the current economy and some other hungry sucker person thinking this is his/her way into the business.

Personally, it's very easy to say don't travel ANYWHERE for this publication. And completely understandable. But if the poster needs this job badly enough, it's either go or risk the wrath and overtly show you don't trust management.

Keep working, track every trip not paid for in a personal log and send out resumes even faster than you already were.

 

Understandable. When people are desperate, they will do (almost) anything.

If anything, I'd be telling management that, instead of refusing to go, that I couldn't afford to go, that it wasn't in my budget to be spending all that money on gas and car repairs.

 

Also, if you don't already, get some back-up copies of how you accrued the miles, with printouts of game stories attached, as well as a copy of any e-mails you've sent to the publisher.

If things get worse (like them getting pissy if you refuse to travel), you're going to want enough evidence to take this to small claims court and win.

 

This is sad story. I wish you could out your paper so we could learn of one of the worst businesses in the business. How the heck can they not get you 800 bucks? 800 bucks is breaking the company? Just tell em you can't afford to pay out of pocket any more. You need your money. If they fire or demote you over it, you are gonna have to suck it up and hire a lawyer.

 

They can't make mileage payments, and you're still traveling on your dime to assignments?

So when payroll is blown, will you keep working out of the goodness of your heart?

I've always said, if a day comes when my company can't make payroll, I'm walking. If you're stupid enough to keep working for free, you deserve whatever you get.