Eight Dollar Blog

Questionnaires have been extensively used to obtain learners’ verbal reports in the L2 field. In a questionnaire, a series of written questions or prompts probe the subjects for answers on specific topics or areas of concern. Questionnaires are quite flexible in structure, ranging from the strict closed-question format with nswers marked on aLikert scale to the less controlled design based on open-ended questions. In most cases, questionnaires elicit generalized responses about habitual behavior or nonrecent events, thus generating self-reports based on delayed retrospection. It is possible,
however, to administer a questionnaire promptly after a task to obtain some early or task-specific retrospection (see Cohen, 1984).

The questionnaire has been the most widely applied method of verbal data collection in the study of inner speech. Smith (1983) used a short open-ended questionnaire in an informal survey he performed on the self-talking habits of college students. Researchers working within an intrapersonal communication perspective have resorted to the questionnaire to explore people’s “imagined interactions” (Allen, David, & Kung, 1997; Honeycutt et al., 1989). Researchers have also developed questionnaires to pursue aspects of intrapersonal communication, such as people’s inner voice experiences and their role in creating an alter ego (Hamilton, 1997) and the correlations of inner speech with self-deception, depression, and self-consciousness (Siegrist, 1995). In the field of L2 learning, Bedford (1985) designed a questionnaire to gather data on the din phenomenon, an instrument that served as the basis for Guerrero’s (1987) study of mental rehearsal in the L2 and Lantolf s (1997) research on L2 language play. Guerrero (1990/1991,1994,1999) again used questionnaires in her wide survey on inner speech during mental rehearsal of the L2 among learners of various ESL proficiency levels (see Chapter 5 for full details of this research), a methodology that was replicated in Gutierrez’s (2000) inner speech study among FL learners. Finally, researchers have utilized questionnaires to explore L2 speakers’ preferences for a language of thought (Cohen, 1998; Larsen et al., 2002) and for internal purposes (Cook, 1998).

Taken From:Inner Speech – L2 hinking words in a second langunge

This week, review the four criteria for claiming a home office as
outlined in this chapter to determine if you meet any of them, then be sure to do the following:

1. Determine the exact amount of square footage your home office area will occupy in your home. Use blueprints or floor plans as necessary.

2. Be sure to keep the office free of personal belongings. If you have already established a work area, remove such things as TVs, computer games, personal books, board games, etc.

3. Take photographs of your office area and date them.

4. Purchase a guest log book if you plan to regularly meet clients in your home.

5. Have business cards and letterhead printed with your address
and business phone on them.

6. Begin to log your personal and business time so that you can determine your “business percentage” time for the purpose of depreciating furnishings and equipment.

Taken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever

If you are eligible for a home office deduction, you have to claim it. You cannot simply decide not to deduct it if you do meet the eligibility requirements we have outlined above. Why is this? If the IRS discovers that you are eligible, they will insist that you have to reduce the basis of your home by the amount of depreciation allowable anyway, so you might as well take it.17

If you rent, you must take the claim by deducting a portion of your rent as it equates to the square footage of the home office. For example, if you pay $750 per month in rent on a 1,000 square-foot apartment, and your home office occupies 250 square feet of that space, you can deduct onefourth of your rent (or $187.50 per month; $2,250 per year) for your home office.

Another thing to consider is that the home office deduction is limited
to the net income from the business activity you conduct at home.18 Consequently, if you have any expenses above and beyond the net income, you will not be able to deduct those home office expenses. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the home office deduction because any expenses disallowed solely because they exceed your business income can be carried forward until you have sufficient income from your business conducted from home.19

Taken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever

What qualifies as a write-off for a home office? Anything you use in
business other than an automobile. Examples include:
• Photocopy machines.
• Computers.
• Printers.
• Fax machines.
• Office furnishings including rugs, lighting, desks, chairs, and
bookcases.

If you choose to depreciate such items, then you have to keep the
item in your business for seven years or you must recapture some of that depreciation.

For example, a person buys a rug and a photocopier for their homebased business for a total of $4,200. That person can either depreciate that amount over seven years or they can elect to write off the entire amount in the year they purchased the items. Writing off the entire cost in the year it is purchased is usually the best course, but again, that deduction is limited to the income from the home-based business. If you don’t have a lot of income, you will have to carry over the deduction. If you work your business as hard as you should, you will have the advantage of more income, and more income brings more tax benefits such as we have just outlined.

As of 2001, you can elect to expense up to $21,000 worth of business equipment per year.16 What happens if you want to purchase more than $21,000 worth of equipment and furnishings in a year? Anything you purchase over that amount must be depreciated instead. Let’s say you buy $30,000 worth of equipment for your business. You can elect to write off $21,000 of it and the remaining $9,000 you can depreciate. You can also choose to wait. You can buy only $21,000 worth of equipment in the current year, and in January of the next year, buy the additional $9,000 worth of items that you need. In this way, you can elect to write off $21,000 in the current year, and $9,000 as part of next year’s purchases, avoiding any depreciation. Waiting may be a better way of saving tax dollars than purchasing all $30,000 worth of equipment in one year.

Be sure to consult with your accountant about all the rules for depreciating furnishings and equipment for your home office.

Taken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever

A home office deduction relates only to the real estate and utilities for the office, and not for the furnishings and equipment used in it. However, such furniture and equipment can be depreciated. The rule is: Furniture, whether you qualify for a home office deduction or not, is depreciable only to the extent that you use it for business.13

For example, say you work at home and you use a desk 80 percent of the time for business. Even though you don’t claim a home office, 80 percent of that desk becomes depreciable. If you sit on chairs, use desk lamps, computer equipment, file cabinets or bookshelves, these can also be depreciated if they are used to conduct business.

How do you depreciate furniture and equipment so you can deduct it?
First, you must keep good tax records, as we have already emphasized. By doing so you can determine, within a 90-day period, what percentage of your time is spent in business and personal use and then use that time to help figure what percentage of the desk, chair, carpeting, lighting, equipment, etc., that you can depreciate. Second, determine the depreciation amount allowed for the item. This amount is the lower amount of the original cost, or today’s market value.14 So let’s say you have an antique desk you bought three years ago. It cost you $500 and today it’s worth $550. The amount you can write off for that desk is the lower of the two figures.

This depreciation rule assumes you work your business regularly, emphasizing once again how important it is to give your business, even if it’s part-time, consistent efforts.15

Taken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever

5. Document Use of Your Office in Your Tax Diary. This is where a tax diary can pay for itself a hundredfold. Use your tax diary to record what activities you performed in your home office such as, “studied for my network business from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.,” or
“made calls from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., HO (home office).” This work activity log in your diary does not need to be an elaborate document; simply keep some notes about what you did during the day. If you ever get audited, you may have to answer questions about work or phone calls or training sessions that occurred two or three years prior.

When you make long distance calls, are you required to write down
every person’s name that you call in your tax diary? Generally not. But you should log it somewhere as a business-related call. During an audit, the IRS would ask, “Is this particular activity business or personal?” If you have not kept a log of your daily business activities, how will you ever know? You can look at your phone bill from three years previous and not be able to discern what calls were made for business and what were made for pleasure. Don’t forget, the IRS, if it audits you, will not be doing so the same year you make
those calls.

Remember, keep a good tax diary and organize all records.

Taken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever

2. Prepare a Floor Plan. Keep blueprints of your home to prove
the amount of space occupied by the home office. If blueprints are not available, make a drawing of your home showing the relationship of the home office’s square footage to the total square footage of the home.

This graphic shows a typical house floor plan indicating the
space occupied by a home office: Using a floor plan with the actual square footage of your home such as this one, you can easily calculate how much square footage you can deduct for a home office. You can also maximize this space using different computing methods. (For more information on these maximizing methods, refer to Appendix D.)

3. Prominently Display Home Office Address. Put your address and telephone number on business cards and stationery.12 The IRS takes the position that if people don’t know you’re alive and kicking somewhere, you can’t take a home office deduction.

4. Use a Guest Log. If you physically meet and greet clients at home
on a regular basis, you can absolutely prove your home office exists using a guest log. Every time clients come to your home, have them write down their name, address, and occupation.

Taken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever

Here’s an example of just how sneaky IRS agents can be. When Sandy was working as an attorney with the IRS, one of his agent colleagues audited a person claiming the home office deduction. Everything appeared to be in order in this taxpayer’s home office. But then the agent ran a directory of the taxpayer’s hard drive and discovered a game called “King’s Quest” on it. Naturally, a person can have games loaded on their office computer; he just can’t play them in his home office. The problem was that the taxpayer played the game and then saved it onto his hard drive in the same year that he was claiming the home office deduction. Even though he may
have played the game only once during the year, by keeping the computer in the area he claimed for his home office, this taxpayer lost his deduction.

In another instance involving an audit, an IRS agent visited the home of the taxpayer and noticed a sofa bed in the home office area. Of course it was perfectly acceptable for this taxpayer to have a sofa bed in his office, as long as nobody slept on it! The IRS agent knew what would happen if he just flat out asked the taxpayer if anybody ever slept on the sofa bed; of course his answer would be no! Instead, after completing the audit, the agent sat on the sofa and said, “Gee, you know, I’m thinking of buying something like this for my parents to use when they come to visit me. My dad has a bad back. Do you have any experience with this? About somebody
who might have hurt his back?” Obviously, the taxpayer was taken off guard and said, “Yeah, my brother and dad come to visit me and they don’t have any problem. My mom doesn’t have any problem.” The agent then nailed him because he now had proof that the individual used the sofa bed in his home office for personal reasons and disallowed the deduction.

So how can you absolutely, with confidence, prove a home office deduction?

Follow these tips and you will be totally secure:
1. Photograph Your Office. A photo can be a very important piece
of documentation. Take pictures of the bookshelves, the file cabinets, the desk, and the general workspace. Make sure you have
all your personal items out of the area before you do so. You don’t want the IRS to see “Crossword Puzzle Secrets” in the photograph. Date the photos, but don’t send them to the IRS. Simply hold onto them in case you ever do get audited. They will come in very handy. Photographs establish exclusivity.

Taken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever

If you can meet any of the above four criteria you will have no problem proving that you use your home to conduct business and can take the home office deduction. Once you decide to take it, you should be aware of a few rules that can help you substantiate your claim.

Exclusive Use
You must use a room, or portion of a room, exclusively and regularly in one of several business functions in order to take a home office deduction. When the IRS says “exclusively,” it is not kidding. This means that no personal or other non-qualifying work activities may occur in your home office area. If you watch TV in the designated home office area, unless it’s solely for videotape training purposes, remove the television.10 Remove those cookbooks you like from the shelves in your home office work space, and remove the games and other family fun activities out of the area.

To qualify for the home office deduction, you don’t have to use an entire room as your workspace. If you want to use part of a room for business, you can do that. However, there should be some physical separation of the business area from the personal area.11 If you keep your desk, chair, and filing cabinet in your living room, for instance (which is the way many home-based businesses start out), then the square footage those items occupy qualifies for the home office; the rest of the room’s square footage does not. You are not allowed to co-mingle your business and personal furniture. We often hear people wondering if the IRS will really send someone over to their house to see if they are using an exclusive portion of a room for business. Yes, it will. Fortunately, if it plans to send anyone by your house, it will give between four and 12 weeks advance notice. Even with a notice, however, the IRS still manages to nail the unsuspecting taxpayer.

Taken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever

Criteria #2: Meet-and-Greet Test.
If you don’t use your home office 50 percent of the time for your homebased business, and don’t meet the exception to the Soloman decision, you can still qualify for the home office deduction. An exception allows you to claim the deduction when you use your home office as a place where you meet and greet your clients (customers, patients, distributors, and so on) as a regular and ongoing part of your business.5 Such use must be substantial and integral to conducting your business.6

During an audit, the IRS will look very closely at your actual physical
meeting with clientele or customers. Telephone contacts do not count, no matter how lengthy or how frequent.7 Meeting and dealing with clients in your home office is what counts. Now-and-then meetings do not qualify.8 The law requires that:

• Meetings occur in a planned way.
• Such meetings are ordinary (or regular).
• Such meetings are an essential part of the way you carry on
your business.

Be sure to keep track of all your hours for these meetings. Every time
you work, you should note in your tax diary what you are doing. When you see clients, you should note this in your diary.

Criteria #3: Home Office Deduction for a Second Business.
You might be able to qualify for a home office deduction in yet another way. If you happen to have a second side business, you can claim a home office deduction for that as well. The deduction does not have to relate to your primary business.

Criteria #4: Display or Inventory Storage.
If you use space in your home to display or store products that you sell on a wholesale or retail basis, you can add the square footage of this space to the space you claim for the home office deduction. One of the requirements, however, is that your residence be the sole fixed location for your business.9 Our recommendation, in order to help you meet this criteria, is to take photographs of the location in your home where you store inventory or display product samples. This is vital. By doing so, the IRS will have proof that you are using the space in this manner and cannot question you.

Taken from : Money Mastery “10 Principles That Will Change
Your Financial Life Forever