On Jun 20, 4:11 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
Abe wrote:
I hired a contractor to do some work, the work is complete and I got a bill.
The amount is $800. On the invoice at the bottom they wrote in ink make
check payable to "john smith", the owner. Not the name of the company.

I guess they are doing this to avoid taxes.

The issue is, I would like to make the check out to the business's name as
this work involved a permit and was done over a dispute with a neighbor so I
want a record incase there are any further legal issues between me and my
neighbor. Should I just make the check out to the companies business or to
the owner?

Hmm. A couple of ways to go on this.

You could call him and say that if he wants this to be off the books,
then offer me a substantial discount.

Is that how you operate? The contractor completes the work to your
satisfaction, then you try to back-end in a discount by squeezing the
guy?

Only if he tries to get me to poay him off the books. Fair is fair.

And I agree, because avoiding paying his fair share of income taxes
means the hohorable tax payers have to pay more than their fair share.

I think anyone stupid enough to either brag about their cheating on
taxes or who asks for payment in a way which makes you suspect he is
doing so.....deserves any "dissing" he gets.

It might not just be taxes though, perhaps he's got judgements against
his business for not paying bills and is trying to avoid having your
payment grabbed for those.

Care to extrapolate beyond reason any more, or are you done? Hell,
the guy could be a mass murderer and he'll be using the money to fund
terrorism! Police! Police!

We're talking about a business arrangement. I am not in charge of
running anyone else's life other than my own. I don't want to be your
nanny, your mother, your guardian, your judge and jury, or anything
else. I expect to be treated squarely, and I'll do the same with
you. I expect you to talk to me. If you have special requests, let
me know what they are beforehand. If you mess with me, I'll smack you
down. I'm very good at that.

I do my due diligence before I hire someone. I'll know before I sign
anything if there are judgments and other complaints. I don't guess
as to someone's motivation and how they handle their finances. I
simply protect my own interests. I'm very good at that, too.

Some may want to play cop. That's fine. They're free to handle their
affairs any way they want. If I don't like the arrangement, I won't
sign on.

BTW, I've never met an "honorable" tax payer. Every single one I've
ever met has felt that they are paying too much in taxes. Haven't met
one that decided they weren't getting taxed enough and sent extra
money in to make up the difference. That's what an honorable tax
payer would do, right?

If you want to feel you're not paying any more in taxes than you have
to, you don't go running around beating up on little guys, you work
the proper channels and let your opinion be known on the _huge_
amounts of wasteful government spending. How many one-man-band
contractors would you need to bust to equal one hour of the war in
Iraq? How about tax breaks and windfall profits for Big Oil,
Halliburton (still love their briefcases), etc.?

R