travel reimbursement

Are you fulltime? I would think the company will pay you mileage.

But why wait so many weeks to bring this up? T%he company wouldn't like having to pay so many weeks at one time.

 

We're at $0.31, and it seems to be fluctuating weekly.

I do deduct the difference between my shop's rate and the federal rate on my taxes. Don't just assume that because you don't make a lot/are young that you shouldn't itemize, especially if you have a ton of business or medical expenses. If you're not paying someone to do your taxes, try doing it both ways and seeing what you get.

 

We get 44.5 with a $12.50 minimum.

 

Travel is a funny thing and it changes from place to place. When I covered Michigan back in the day, airfare, hotel and cash advance was never an issue at the daily I worked at. In fact, I remember having to go to California when the team went to the '97 Rose Bowl/national championship vs. Washington State, and Carr took the team out there on something like Dec. 14. I remember leaving with like a $2,000 advance, no questions asked, no problem.

When I moved to the weekly mag I now work at, they have a travel agent who sets up your airfare -- and that's it. No advance, no prepay on the hotel. YOU are responsible for everything else up front, and when you're covering some 4-day conference at the Ritz Carlton and your bosses insist that you stay there in order to schmooze with heavy hitters, well, let's just say that laying out $1,600 bucks just for the room (even though you do, of course, get it back) can be a little dicey at some points during the year

 

We're usually pretty good with gas reimbursement. And really good with hotels.

Which helps picking up tail on the road. :

 

Biggest problem I can see is somebody is going to want to know why you have waited so long and filed a major lump at once. Best thing is to file expenses monthly, if not weekly. Keeps everything moving along and doesn't catch some bookkeeper off guard.

 

Wait a second. Are you telling me that as a stringer I should expect mileage? I hope I'm not misconstruing that. I get $60 a story from a major paper 2-4 times a week. I've probably racked up around 800 miles.

 

Speaking of reimbursements, how have most of you obtained your laptop? Did you buy it or did the paper foot the bill? I'm using a machine provided by the paper, but the sumbitch runs on coal. Remember Windows '95? That's what I'm rocking.

I'd like to upgrade, I'm just not sure if the boss will pay for it.

 

Going rate at my paper is $0.25 per mile. Not so sweet. Plus you have to factor in that I don't live in the town where I cover sports, so anytime I drive from home to a game, I can only claim mileage from the office. Doubly not so sweet.

 

At least at every paper where I've ever worked, stringers don't get mileage. If they have to drive more than normal, that gets figured into the set amount they're being paid... I know some prep editors that would monkey with this to make it fair like pay the guy for 10 stories when he only wrote nine because of mileage or other expenses...

 

It's $0.24 per mile at my paper. And legend has it (though this has never happened to me....yet) that on many occasions in the past, the beancounters have demanded to check the odometer for themselves.

 

We're at .32 and holding. It's been there for about a year despite the increases/decreases in gas.

Steamboat: If you're going to upgrade computers, don't count on the paper picking up the tab. Best you can do is write it off on your taxes if possible. Big bosses at my paper got all crazy when we started mentioning even a little monthly fund for us using our own computers/cell phones...Anyway.