Noyac said:
Can you do it if you have one anesthestizing location? I was under the impression that you can't deduct your car if used only to travel to and from work without traveling from site to site.
In my previous (golden) gig, Noy, all partners had a leased vehicle through the company (which, initially to the untrained eye looks like a free deal, but, uhhh, we owned the company, so we were ultimately still paying for it, just realizing a tax deduction), which included all vehicle expenses. We did it with one anesthetizing location...but eventually acquired another, for 2 total.
Come tax time we'd get a letter from our business manager saying "your vehicle expenses were $15,432"....or whatever.
Then on your personal tax return you designate what percentage was business oriented....
usually 50%.
And heres an anecdote for my med student/resident colleagues out there.
This is my opinion, so it is not gospel. Just Jet's opinion.
I was previously in a fee-for-service group. We were our own bosses. We made our own rules. Employed who we wanted. Got rid of who we wanted. Billed for ourselves via business associates we selected. Owned our office building.
If hospital administration had a beef with us, it was presented in a cordial, "how do we solve this" manner.
Now I'm chief of an anesthesia service. But now, I'm a hospital employee.
Totally different gig, requiring a totally different mindset.
My $ are great. No complaint. Not up-to-par with my previous gig, but respectable nonetheless. Took the tradeoff for family reasons. In other words, I lived where I didnt want to for nearly eight years, which benefitted me in the monetary dept. So making a move to where my boss (wife) said we should live was possible.
But now, because of the gig I'm in, even though I'm chief of our dept, I'm still not my own boss. If something becomes awry, I'm on the chopping block.
I answer to some administrator. Some administrator who doesnt know the anesthesia biz like you do.
If you are a partner in a fee-for-service group (like my previous gig), you answer to...yourself. And your partners. If theres a problem at the hospital, assuming you run a tight/well respected/surgeons are happy/ group,
the administrators come to you, when you request them. In the OR.
Now, current day,
I am summoned to meetings. I'm the one with stigmata marks. I'm answering to a paper pusher.
I'm where I need to be (geographically) now because of family. And because of intense (hospital vs hospital) competition in the area I'm at, hospitals either employ anesthesiologists or they give monetary augmentations to the group that covers their hospital.
I'm well compensated at my current gig. I don't need/want more $. And I get plenty of time off.
But theres an aching that occurs frequently when a company administrator/lawyer/consultant is telling you something you need to abide by, when you know their advice is not the best.
There is no utopia.
But a quasi utopia is being your own boss.
