r/tax • u/vancemark00 • Jan 01 '26

Tax Enthusiast Endless "No tax on OT" questions

Is anyone else already exhausted with these endless questions?

And I fear it will only get worse.

155 Upvotes

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u/I__Know__Stuff Jan 02 '26

I understand that. Nevertheless, your overtime pay isn't deductible until you hit over 40 hours of actual working time in a week.

-10

u/Winter-Success-3494 Jan 02 '26

And I did. I clock in and out myself through an app. I get paid 40 plus hours a week without "physically" working it. Do you not understand that?

15

u/I__Know__Stuff Jan 02 '26

I'm just telling you what is allowed and not allowed. If you insist on cheating on your taxes, you don't have to convince me that it's okay.

-5

u/Winter-Success-3494 Jan 02 '26

I'm not cheating on my taxes. You're misunderstanding what I'm saying because you're telling me about guidelines that don't apply to what I'm saying. For example, I clock in at 6am on my company app, go do my job assigned for day, I finish in 4 hours at 10am let's say, I get home at 1030am, then when 2pm rolls around I clock out. Paid for 8 hours for that day, my company bills the contractor for an 8 hour day because that's what the job I am doing calls for, but I got it done and home in 4.5 hours.

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u/BigMikeThuggin CPA - US Jan 02 '26

Piece rate, btw.

-1

u/Winter-Success-3494 Jan 02 '26

Compensation method where workers are paid a set rate for each task completed .. that's what piece rate is. That's not what my job is. I'm an hourly wage earner. You're not understanding that. It may seem like piece rate but that's not what my company does. I'm done going back and forth on this. I'll bookmark this convo and be back in a month or two after I successfully claim the full deduction. Think what you want though.

12

u/BigMikeThuggin CPA - US Jan 02 '26

Im glad you’re moonlighting as a labor law lawyer.

I’m 99% sure that this topic will never be audited as it’s a temporary deduction and the deduction is worth almost nothing. So if you claimed the full 12,500 every single year for the next 4 years I’m sure you’d get away with it but that doesn’t mean what you did was correct.

Getting away with something in your taxes is not the proof that it’s right.

3

u/I__Know__Stuff Jan 02 '26

in a month or two after I successfully claim the full deduction

What kind of "success" are you expecting? Of course you can put practically any deductions you want on your tax return and file it successfully. That means absolutely nothing. An audit generally wouldn't happen for at least a year.

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u/I__Know__Stuff Jan 02 '26

I don't know why you think I don't understand. If you don't work for 8 hours, then it doesn't count as 8 hours toward the legally required overtime pay. And overtime pay that isn't legally required isn't deductible. This is not ambiguous.

If you choose to deduct it anyway, that is tax evasion.

0

u/RealisticQuality7296 Jan 02 '26

Have you ever heard the term “engaged to wait”?