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Back in 1989, I hired an old vagabound carpenter, Zeke. He was a pretty friendly character, and a decent carpenter.
Anyways, at the end of our first week, I was getting ready to pay him (subcontract labor), and he asked me to make out his check to his church. I told him, that I couldn’t without proper fed ID documentation. He replied “NO problem, I’ll bring it tomorrow”.
The next day, I was skeptical as he was pulling an old wrinkled envelope out of his jacket. But sure enough, he had the paperwork for his church; The Temple of Zeke, complete with fed Id numbers.
And so I made the check out to the church.
IN the following days, I learned that he had to take an oath of poverty to obtain his “church”. He couldn’t own anything. He had a beat up old car that he traveled across the country in.
So I asked Zeke, “How do you file your income taxes each year?”
“Simple” he replied. “I take my 1099’s into the accountants office. That is my income. I reach into my pockets and pull out, and count all my money. That is what is left after expenses. Everything else is expenses.”
And that’s all the bookeeping and accounting that he did.
He reasoned that if the government didn’t like how he was doing it, they could come and take him away, and give him a nice home with three square meals a day.
He was right!
As soon as the Michigan autumn season began to arrive, he came up to me and said “Blue, I won’t be seeing the end of this house.” Surprised, I asked “Why?”. He replied “The air is getting cold, and next week at this time I’ll be waking up on a park bench on Muscle Beach”.
Next week, he was gone.
True story.
Zeke, you still out there?
Blue
Replies
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Back in 1989, I hired an old vagabound carpenter, Zeke. He was a pretty friendly character, and a decent carpenter.
Anyways, at the end of our first week, I was getting ready to pay him (subcontract labor), and he asked me to make out his check to his church. I told him, that I couldn't without proper fed ID documentation. He replied "NO problem, I'll bring it tomorrow".
The next day, I was skeptical as he was pulling an old wrinkled envelope out of his jacket. But sure enough, he had the paperwork for his church; The Temple of Zeke, complete with fed Id numbers.
And so I made the check out to the church.
IN the following days, I learned that he had to take an oath of poverty to obtain his "church". He couldn't own anything. He had a beat up old car that he traveled across the country in.
So I asked Zeke, "How do you file your income taxes each year?"
"Simple" he replied. "I take my 1099's into the accountants office. That is my income. I reach into my pockets and pull out, and count all my money. That is what is left after expenses. Everything else is expenses."
And that's all the bookeeping and accounting that he did.
He reasoned that if the government didn't like how he was doing it, they could come and take him away, and give him a nice home with three square meals a day.
He was right!
As soon as the Michigan autumn season began to arrive, he came up to me and said "Blue, I won't be seeing the end of this house." Surprised, I asked "Why?". He replied "The air is getting cold, and next week at this time I'll be waking up on a park bench on Muscle Beach".
Next week, he was gone.
True story.
Zeke, you still out there?
Blue