Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

;l; SEMINAR SET go Boston, Mass. will be th e locat io n of Q. the next management seminar for ~ mo torcycle dealers and managers ell acc o rd ing to a representative of Garrett roo: & Associates, Inc . The Boston sem inar :; will be held at the Sheraton Hotel on ::;: April 2 through 5. Garrett Management ~ Seminars are designed to bring the latest w management techniques to th e z motorcycle industry. _ ~ Doug Toms, Director o f the Na t io nal o Highway Traffic Safety Bureau in Washington, D.C., will direct an informal discussion on the latest legislation and Federal G overnment survey findings pertain ing to the motorcycle industry. Toms was th e Garrett Management Seminar ke ynote speaker at their Palm Springs, Calif. meeting last Decemb er. "S ystemization for Motorcycle Dealership" will be the topic discussed by Ralph Rentz, C.P.A. and Senior Partner in Rentz, Michaels Company. Rentz, Michaels Company specialize in automotive ac counting and ha ve over 20 new car dealership accounts as well as many motorcycle dealership accounts. He has developed the only complete acc o untin g and auditing sy stem for motorcycle dealerships. This new system will be available to dealers about May o f th is year and will, for th e first time , allo w for stat istic al co mpariso n o f vari ous d ealerships. Robert No rto n , who often serv es as gue st lecturer for th e Presidents' Asso ciatio n , will d isucss "Emplo ye e Motivation and Dis cipline " . Norton freq ue n tly serv es as Pan el Ch airman and Sem inar Lead er w ith th e Am erican Man agemen t Association. He presen ts in-eom pany training programs on a con tract b asis with So uth ern Cali forn ia Ed ison, Lo ckheed, Gen eral Elec tric Supply Co ., Kennecott Copper , an d ot hers . Oth er sp eakers will ro un d o ut th e full Garrett Man agement Se minar whic h is a regular busin ess ex pense and full y tax d eductible. A 5200 registrat io n fee includes a Sunday evening cocktail party , necessary co urs e ma terials an d supplies. et c. Further information and b roch ures are available fr om G arr ett & Associate s, In c., P.O . Box 2381 , A lha mb ra , Cal if., 9 1803 . t By Russ Sanford MOTORCYCLE OPERATOR LICENSES The never-ending 1971 Legislative Session ground to a close at noon on Jan. 3,1972. At that same moment, the 1972 Legislative Session commenced. Because the motorcyclists had made such a "good showing" in 1971 legislative matters, and be cause 1972 is an election y ear for most of our legislators, I had op tim ist ic hopes th at we would be more-or -less left alo ne this year . I was in Southern California during th at first week of January fo r the Long Beach Trade Show. On th e evening of Jan. 3, my good wife, Doris called to inform me that, "We have job-security for anoth er year." She went on to explain that Senator Harmer, who represents Los Angeles County's 21st District, had introduced a bill involving motorcycles during the very first da y of the legislative session, even though it was only a half-day in length. Senator Harmer's Senate Bill 17 prohibits minors from obtaining a motorcycle Operators' License unless the minors' parents, guardians, o r persons having custody give their written consent to the Department of Motor Vehicles. SB 17 also requires that a minor who has a motorcycle Operators' License cannot obtain any other category of Operator License unless he completes a new application and also obtains written consent of parents, guardians or persons having custody. You will recall that the "age of majority " was dropped from 21 to 18 years of age for some actions, such as voting and holding public office. Also, as of now, 18 ' year-olds can legally make pu rchases, sign contracts, and obtain financing. It doesn't make much sense then that a person between 18 and 21 years of age can legally purchase a motorcycle and finance it, if necessary, but cannot obtain an Operators' License without the consent of their parents o r guardians ; I discussed this incongruity with Senator Harmer's administrative assistant and was promised that the matter would be researched and an amendment would be forthcoming , if found t o b e necessary. It was not Senator Harmer's intent th at the requirements would p ertain to any o ne excep t th ose persons wh o are under 18 years o f age. is to be allocated to the Off-Highway Veh icle Fund . In exp lanation, each tim e yo u p urchase a gallon of gasoline you p ay a seven-cent gas tax which is allocated to th e Highway Fund for purposes of constructing highways. For years, fanners, boat owners, and other persons who purchase gasoline for non-highway purposes, have been allowed to file forms which result in a gas-tax refu nd to the purchaser. This has been rather easy for perons buying gas in la rge quantities, but for a mo torcyclist who purchases in two-to-five gall on quantities, it has hardly been worth the effort of keeping receipts and filing the ncessary forms. I might mention that a large group of motorcyclists in the San Francisco Bay Area started doing this several months ago and having been driving the State of California nuts with 'nickel and di me' refunds. We can only imagine what it must cost the State to process these forms and issue the checks. A nd , also your spokesman informs me that they are collecting the refunds as a donation to M.O.R.E . So, if they want to start an arg ument with me , they'll h ave to pick a d ifferent subject. At our request, two idcntical bi lls have been introduced. These are Asse mblyman Chapple's AB 151 and Senator Gregorio's SB 125. Both AB 151 and SB 125' revoke the provision wh ich allo ws gas-tax refunds for o ff-ro ad veh icles " and requires auto ma tic transfer o f such revenues to the Off-Highwa y Vehicle Fund. It is important t ha t yo u write t o yo ur elected represen tative and let him know t h ta t yo u support b oth AB 151 and SB 125 . Passage of th ese bills will result in severa l million dollars made ava ilab le fo r o ur p u rposes each year. It is su pe r-neat GAS TAX REF UNDS If you will recall , w e h ave published articl es p ertaining to th e several Certi ficat ion and Id en ti fication p rogram for off -road veh icles with th e resu lt an t fees to b e placed in the O ff -Highway Vehicle Fund for ac quisi tio n, devel opmen t, and ma int enance of facili ties an d t rail networks for off-road veh icles, In two of th o ese articles, we ma de mention that w e wo u ld pu rsu e legislat ion to o btain th e au to mat ic refund of a proport io nat e share of th e gaso line sales tax. T he refunded amount rep resen ta tive is, send a self-ad dressed stamped envelope fo r o ur FR EE legislat ive and le tterw riti ng gu ide . Send y our requests, co mme nts, and/ o r inquiries to M.O .R.E., P.O. Box 26062 , S acrament o , Cali f. 95 82 6. prest ige. Coll ect th e program (especially if yo ur name is in it), t he res u lts lis t , save the ch ec k with whi ch you paid yo ur ent ry fee , and clip all th e sto ries o f th e even t o ut of the magazin es an d ne wspape rs. Get yourself k nown by the ph ot ographers th at cover the events that yo u ride ; yo u' re mo re likely to ge t yo ur pi cture in th e paper th at way and th at's help ful. Making money is, o f course , the mo st sure way to convince the ske p tical IRSer th at soo ne r o r lat er yo u r business will amo unt to so m eth ing. If yo u are good eno ugh th at yo ur sp onsor will agr ee to p ay yo u so me th ing o n a co nt ing ency b asis (say 100 for a w in) , t ry to make an arrange ment by wh ich yo u won't ge t p aid quit e as much fo r an o utrigh t win but you'll b e paid something for seconds and thirds. The total income will probably be ab o u t the same but you ' ll h ave more entries in the inco me sid e of th e led ger. If someo ne wants to take you to dinn er to c o nvinc e you to wear o r use th eir produets, tell them y o u're not hungry and wh at you "real ly wa nt is a check fo r $5. An y th ing that your spo nsor gives you is incom e. This can include leathers, goggles, parts, gasoline, meals , etc. Just ke ep rec ords. Naturally, yo u have to be aware of what you're d oing all the time. If yo u earn $15 ,000 a year as a mechanic and are in the 20 % tax bracket , then $4,000 worth of racing expenses is worth about $800 in savings on yo ur income tax. $800 then is the magic figure to keep in t he back of your heard when yo u 're planning your year's activities. Earning up to 5300 in your racing is great because that simply hel ps to substantiate your claim that you're attemp ting to create a b usiness. Yo u 'll pay $60 in taxes on that and save $740 net. From a few hundred to up $4,000 you want to be careful because you're eating into the money that you'd be saving by dedu cting th e c ost of racing. Whether or not you want to ea rn th at money depends on what you have to do for it. Remember that the first few hundred y.ou earn ac t u ally is making a lot o f money fo r yo u. Yo u earn 200 and co me out with a net profit of $960. If you earn $1,000 you p ay $ 200 in taxes and save $800 through deductions for a net profit of $ 1 600. From a profit-to-earnings ratio of 4.5 to I in the first case you've been reduced to 1.6 to 1. When you ge,l up to. SA,OO.o jhere's " not p rofit at all, but you've earned ( Co nt 'd. f rom page 5) eno ugh to pay fo r your racing. Ab ove $4 ,000 yo ur raci ng ac tually is a payin g business. Mo ral : If yo u know your racin g is not going to earn mo re than expenses , be very ch oosy about , ea rni ng mu ch above wh at 's need ed to j ustify its exist en ce as a fled glin g business. If you go this way , you sho uld file a 1040 retu rn w ith a schedule "C " attach ed to it. Th er e are othe r tax gim micks tha t co uld possibl y sa ve you so me money. If you are an occasiona l free lancer to a newpspap er or maga zin e, yo u might b e ab le to writ e off part o f your motorcy clin g expenses. T here might b e some advan tages in inc o rpo ratio n, o r in forming a partnership, even if th e other half of th e p artnership is yo ur 6-year -old d au ght er. The o nly way to know if it's worth anyth ing is to consult a tax lawy er or ta x accountant. Here again keep your h ead st ra igh t, T he tax man will get a min imum o f 52 5 and h is fee can go right through the ro of if things ge t really co mplicated . If yo u're in sit ua tio ns like those I'v e de scribed, figure o n ab o ut 550. He's got to be able to save yo u at least 50 to be worth his salt. If all your income is on a \\'-2 form excep t yo ur racing and your expenses from racing a re $1,000 or less, forget it. By the time your tax man finds enough income to justify your business and takes his fee, there can't be anything in it for you. In marginal cases like these, though, there is one consideration: even th ough there's nothing in it for you one way or the other, you might prefer to give yo ur money to an innocuous tax accountant rather than to the governme nt. At leas t he won't use it to kill anybody. !he income ta x system is a deadly serious game whose mo tive force is the human desire to perpetrate fraud. The rules of the t hing are such that you are encouraged to chisel a little, to save a few bucks whil e you're paying out hundreds or thousands. In satisfying your own greed , you tend to overlook the millionaire next to you who is saving thousands and pa ying nothing. You support the government; he controls it. And he get s away with it be cause you can 't blow the whistle on him without giving up your own petty larceny. Neat, huh? If you're interested in taxes, read a book called Th e R ich And Th e Super Rich , by Ferdinand Lundberg. I heartily recommend it. to h ave so me th ing w o rking in o ur favo r...once in awh ile. isn' t it? If yo u do n' t k now who yo ur elected

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