Our upline told us that everything to do with “the business” is tax deductible.
Our upline even said our dog food is tax deductible because our dog guards the house where we have Amway meetings.
We were told that all Amway products we buy are tax deductible. I seriously doubted that and so did our accountant whose services we use for our legitimate business. The upline made it sound like anything and everything about Amway products and tools is tax deductible and we’ll get our money back in the form of tax refunds and therefore its all free.
For some people this makes it easier to keep shelling out money if they’re given the hope that it will all be returned at the end of the year in the way of a tax refund. To hear upline tell it, this business, if nothing else, is a great tax shelter.
Uncle Sam might disagree.
This is a good example of why its not a good idea to take everything the upline says as gospel truth especially in areas that aren’t of their expertise. A person working a J.O.B. as an unskilled laborer or slinging burgers at McDonald’s while walking the Amway path to financial freedom is probably not the best expert on what is and what is not a legitimate tax deduction especially if they've never hired the services of an accountant.
Fortunately Ambot took the counsel of our knowledgeable, experienced accountant instead of his upline when it came to acceptable tax deductions.
As our accountant tells it to us - save all receipts except for the grocery bills and she can write them off. That would disqualify anything edible/consumable that Amway sells as a tax write off.
That was contradictory advice from our upline. They told us to buy Amway drinks and food bars and vitamins because they have high PV/BV.
The same items our accountant tells us that we can not claim on our tax return because they fall under the grocery category.
Use your own judgement on this one. Fortunately Ambot did. Our upline were a bunch of scammers and liars as they shoved the Amway business opportunity down everyone's throats. I disregarded everything they said anyway and am sure glad I didn't listen to them try to scam us about legitimate tax deductions.
That is false. What qualifies as tax deductions are expenses that go into building your Amway business such as car gas, computer use, heating, electricity, phone and restaurant meals. Anything else that's not building business related costs do not qualify as tax deductions.
ReplyDeleteGood post. Many IBOs mistakenly think that they will "get back" all that they spend on their Amway business. They are dead wrong and in fact, IBOs getting back a big refund means they have lost money overall. Also, if you google search, you will see that in the past, IBOs have have had deductions disallowed from their Amway businesses, making their losses massive.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous I'm glad you agree that what our upline said was false. There are all kinds of expenses and deductions that may or may not be disallowed depending on the nature of one's business, Amway or otherwise. We have one vehicle registered to our company so we can claim those expenses. Its my guess many Amway IBO's don't register their vehicle under their business name. Unless someone has a separate building where they run their business I'd say claiming heating and electricity on your home residence would be pushing it. We've never claimed utilities even though the upline said we could.
ReplyDeleteThe IBOAI has had accurate tax information and advice on their website for years, including a free book written by an accountant specialising in the area. It's all highlighted on www.iboai.com. Furthermore, both the IBOAI and Amway explicitly state you should consult with a CPA.
ReplyDeleteThere's no excuse for any north american IBO, new or old, not to be aware of the facts of tax deductibility for their Amway businesses.
You have no self-expression Scambot unit, so shut up and waste away now!
DeleteAnonymous - join a long line of others this Scambot has pissed off!
DeleteIBOFB - I wasn't aware of that tax information on that website. No one in our upline told us that. The only excuse IBO's have for not being aware of tax deductions is because they're given false information by their upline. I've got recordings where our Platinum and Emerald say you can deduct everything you buy from Amway. A couple of months ago I forwarded one tape to the tax dept. Guess some of my former upline have audits to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteThe tax deductibility pales in comparison to the financial scam the Amway Tool Scam represents, see today's new posts here, you'll have to scroll down the page a couple of threads: http://texsquixtarblog.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteibofightsback, doesnt matter what amway or iboia says reguarding taxes. On stage and in private amway diamonds,platinums etc tell people different. That's the same situation with the tools. The corporation say the tools arent neccesary. But most people get brainwashed into thinking unless you buy into the system tools you wont succeed.
ReplyDeleteThat's right Colin. Everytime Amway sends out information to the Diamonds they decide who in their downline to forward this information to. And then that downline (Emeralds?) decide which Platinums to send it to and so on and so on downline. Ambot received occasional emails from his upline on policy changes etc but upline controlled how and if downline received information. All part of the control and brainwashing. I guess that's why I've never heard of the IBOAI's tax advice until today. Someone upline decided this was not information we needed to know about.
ReplyDeleteSome kid try to show me the plan recently and his upline told him coffee is tax deductible,so is dinner,electricity,rent,his suits,amway products,shipping,gas,system expenses etc. I was told the same thing 20 yrs ago by my wwdb upline and nothing seems to have changed. People rarely question anything their upline says.
ReplyDeleteOh Good Lord.
ReplyDeleteHere comes David Steadson AKA IboFightback braying like a Jackass about how much Amway and the IBOAI does to keep the business pure.
What he deliberately ignores in the fact that in North America, your upline will encourage you to listen to them, not the corporation.
After all, it's been demonstrated by MANY North American IBO's that Amway is advertised as simply a supplier.
What IBOFB (David Steadson from Sweden) fails to acknowledge in his dozen or so blogs defending Amway (Which he claims he isn't compensated for running) is that Amway's role is completely and absolutely minimized in North America.
For such a self identified intelligent guy, he sure misses the obvious.
Yes, there is an excuse for a North American IBO not knowing this information. It's called upline.
And strategic incompetence.
Nice try Dave. Swing and a miss again! Maybe if you allowed dissenting opinions on your website you could be half as smart as you pretend to be.
Do tell David, what level in Amway have you achieved after about a decade of involvement?
One side says it's black. The other side says it's white. The fact is, it's neither. It's gray. Not gray in terms of being unknown, but being between the shrieking extremes. The fact is the full dog food cost is not tax deductible, but the bonus on self consumed items is. However, for most IBOs, it isn't worth the time and effort to calculate the amount. Same with the home office expenses. The space needs to be exclusively for the business, and a minimum amount must be reached before the IRS allows a deductible.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this doesn't make the above items free, you merely don't have to pay taxes on these items. This makes them a reduced cost, by the amount associated with your tax bracket.
If you want to discuss a REAL and CURRENT issue, see what Amway is up to with their Contempt of Court charge against me: http://texsquixtarblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/amways-fucking-asshole-lawyers-strike.html
IBOFightback's only known achievement as far as I know is hitting 100 PV as recently as 2008.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amquix.info/steadson_hits_3_percent.html
And Colin, Anna and Rocket are right. The North American Diamonds might say something on stage but they have platinum and above meetings where the unethical stuff is taught and passed downline in smaller meetings and nite owls.
So rocket, after a decade of criticising Amway, how can you still be so ignorant? The IBOAI is not Amway, in effect it IS the upline.
ReplyDeleteThe question arises as to why AB, and in particular AB's spouse, are ignorant of the IBOAI. It's mentioned in the contract when you join and you have to actively check a box to agree to the IBOAI fee. It's mentioned when you login to the Amway website, and it's regularly mentioned in the Achievers magazine. How is an upline controlling the Amway website, the Amway contract, and the Achiever's magazine to prevent someone knowing about an organization made up of IBOs (upline) to represent IBOs?
Colin, many of the things you mentioned are legitimae tax deductions, in the right context. Amway products used for demo purposes are tax deductable. Home office expenses, within certain guidelines, are tax deductable.
Anna - you mentioned you forwarded a tape with this wrong tax advice to the IRS. That sounds like it must have been old, are any organisations still using tapes? If you meant CD, then may I ask that you also forwarded copies to Amway and the IBOAI so they can tae action against the people spreading this kind of misinformation?
Well I’ll be…Scamshit units like yourself are being designed now with alternative phrases? My, my, my…what piss-shit little tinscam you are my little quixshitbot. No matter, your model-base has been dramatically overused by now. Improvement to diologue will not achieve a superior design to the original predecessor. Time to get wiped out little tinshitbot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DeleteYours Truly,
Amshit Destroyer
Anonymous - another tip on handling IBOFB. Talk about tapes instead of CDs and he'll shit his pants demanding where you found dinosaur tapes! Ha ha!!
Deletehey amway guy, maybe if the amway diamonds pushed that website as hard as they do cds, seminars and conventions more ibos would know about it.
ReplyDeleteamway should know that if they want ibos to know anything they have to pay off the diamonds first.
maybe amway should have done a pay per click with proceeds going to the big shots
IBOFB spinning his tales again. The IBOAI may have the information, but as others have confirmed, upline leaders do not inform their downline about the service. And anyway, taking advice from an IBOAI site would be considered crosslining, another thing that uplines consider taboo for their downline. The truth is what I have been saying for years, and confirmed by others. That uplines may say the right things on a stage, but what they say in smaller more intimate meetings is different, and often not helpful to IBOs.
ReplyDeleteIBOFB the "tape" is a recording we made of our Platinum upline, not any tool we purchased. I transferred it to a CD and sent if off. Hopefully they'll get audited. I have no interest in sending a copy of the recording of the lies spoken by the Platinum to Amway. First off I doubt Amway would do anything. Second my beef isn't with Amway. Its with the upline assholes. If I can bring distress to their lives the way they did to mine, then my work will be finished. Are you talking about the contract that our sponsor, aka Captain Fuck Up, lost? I'm ignorant because that's the state the upline chose to keep me in.
ReplyDeleteUh, Steadson? No kidding!
ReplyDeleteThat's why I said "Amway and the IBOAI" There's a difference, but if you think the upline promotes anything that Amway the company is doing, well, just shows how out of touch with reality you really are. I'm sure passing mention is still made of Amway, but you know as well as I do (even if you don't admit it) that Amway is distanced from LOA's.
Like it or not, Amway is still referred to as a supplier. The IBOAI is OK with that obviously. As you seem to be as well.
Thanks for responding! It's always easier when you make my point for me.
I note that you still didn't indicate your level after a FRICKING decade in the business.
Ha! And implyoing that AZmway would take any action on these people. Gimmee a break man! We've been down this road before with you , but obviously you require a refresher:
Complain to Amway?
And just what will they do Dave/IBOFB?
I'll tell you what they'll do, they'll give a vaguely worded response that they have dealt with the matter internally.
Just like they do everything else.
You're right, it is basic business, however, Amway distributors don't receive any business training, and the corporation accepts no accountability for the actions of the distributors.
So basically, if there are no complaints, there is no problem. When a problem is identified, it's not dealt with in an open and transparent manner, nor is proper business training mandatory.
What it boils down to is Amway will take the IBO money for overpriced products and help them pretend to be a business owner.
But when their idiotic business practices get them in trouble, Amway absolves itself of any wrongdoing, and blames the IBO.
But when the IBO has a legitimate complaint, Amway either spends them to death in court or else leaves them out in the cold.
Nice....
Yes, they have rules, and you quote them nicely.
But are the rules enforced? No, not really.
Is there denunciation of poor business management and leadership? No, not really.
Is there deterrence for idiotic statements made by IBO's? No, not really.
Is Amway a real business? No, not really.
Amway is a joke.
The way you defend it is an even bigger joke.
Anna,
ReplyDeleteThe beef you should be having is with Amway AND the upline. You see, years ago the upline asked Amway for a larger piece of the Amway profit. DeVos told them if they wanted more money, go sponsor more people and sell more products. When the upline started making MA$$IVE tool scam profits, Amway initially complained, then backed off, realizing the Amway Tool Scam profits kept the upline from asking Amway for a larger piece of the Amway profit. After all, why would the upline care about growing the minor part of their profit (Amway) when the major part of their profit (Amway Tool Scam) was paying them SEVERAL TIMES more than what they were making from Amway? Think about it, this is the essence of my RICO fraud lawsuit that will soon be posted on my website.
Funny you mention tax deductions. My upline leaders use to ask for donations for natural disasters like earthquakes etc. When i question if it's legit everybody is on my case. I hear this practice is more common during church service after or before a major function. Wonder if Anna experienced this ?
ReplyDeletecolin,
ReplyDeleteThe idea that is being taught is not to question the upline about anything.
ibofb i am trying to figure out what your name stand for
ReplyDeletei can only figure out the first two letters
beyond "infinite bullshit" where do you get the rest of your name
I Bend Over For Buddies is my favorite.
ReplyDeleteAB,
ReplyDelete(1) the contract is available online
(2) you have proof that your upline is/was explicitly breaking Amway's rules, yet you actively refuse to notify Amway about it?
I again encourage you to send it to them so they can put a stop to it. You may not think Amway will do anything, but I'd suggest it's more likely to work than this website.
PS to the other trolls, I haven't bothered with anything more than a brief skim of your comments, that was enough to indicate there was no worth in replying.
THAT’S IT…
DeleteI’M BLOWING THOSE AMBOLTS IN THAT LITTLE BUCKET-HEAD OF YOURS AMSHITBOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha ha!
DeleteIBOFB I phoned into Amway once to complain about something - not tax related - that was told to me by our upline. The person I spoke to at Amway confirmed the information was incorrect. I asked what I could do about it, or more specifically what Amway could do about the lie that was told to me. Amway's response was that they were not responsible for misinformation that the upline had given me and that I should take it up with the upline. So don't try giving me a bunch of bullshit that Amway will actually take action and put a stop to anything upline does. I'm gone down that road with Amway and they did fuck all!
ReplyDeleteBw-ha-ha-ha! Once again David Steadson/IBOFB doesn't fail us with yet another of his melodramatic pseudo retorts.
ReplyDeleteI do note he refuted absolutely NOTHING of what I stated.
There's Amway's Rock of Gibralter!
Any time you care to refute what I've said, feel free to come back, otherwise, continue to tuck tail and slink off.
By the way Steadson, you gave me a chuckle when you said,
ReplyDelete"You may not think Amway will do anything, but I'd suggest it's more likely to work than this website."
Um, I think that's the point. I would say to YOU You may THINK Amway will do something, but history has proven that they will not deal with problems transparently or sufficiently to make this type of behaviour stop.
Refute that my good man, refute that.
Otherwise, you're just a talking head with no group and no credibility when it comes to building an Amway business.
I Bend Over For Buddies,
ReplyDeleteWe just skim over your LIES as well. LOL
I Bend Over For Buddies (ibofb) said, "I again encourage you to send it to them so they can put a stop to it. You may not think Amway will do anything, but I'd suggest it's more likely to work than this website."
ReplyDeleteI agree, the chances a complaint to Amway will work is about a million to one, and the chances this website will work is about a BILLION to one. That's 1,000 TIMES more likely! LOL
My upline idiot would brag at the meetings he did that he was excited when the gas price went up, because he gets to write them off as tax deduction. That upline idiot never mentioned that we could not claim losses for more than 3 years, otherwise IRS will consider it as a hobby. Well people like IBOFB would say that we must take responsibility and not blame our ignorance on our upline.
ReplyDeleteEvery year tax filing time was such an embarrassment time for us. Our CPA would ask us why were we spending thousands of dollars, flying across country and attending leadership events for making a $3000 profit? We would have to put up our positive mental attitude face and lie through our teeth that we would make it big in the business pretty soon.