The Taxman Cometh

It's a little-known secret that can add up to big bucks.

"Should I tell, should I tell?" squeals Kim Thomas, wife of Rick Thomas, illusionist at the Tropicana hotel-casino.

Her husband gives a reluctant nod and allows an industry trade secret to be revealed.

"Condoms, we write off condoms," she says, giggling.

"For my microphone," he adds, shrugging off one more cost from his tax returns. (Slipping the latex over the 3-inch mike pack attached to his belt during his show, "The Illusionary Magic of Rick Thomas," protects the circuitry from being destroyed.)

Yup, it's that time again -- tax season -- and throughout the valley, people are crunching numbers and gathering receipts to pay their yearly government dues.

What many miss, however, are simple deductions tallied up in our daily lives that can protect them from Uncle Sam digging deeply into their bank accounts, according to local certified public accountants.

One such deduction is finding a job -- rather, the expenses that go along with it, says Gary Lambrix, CPA at McGladrey & Pullen. It's something many people in Las Vegas, with its booming job market, may not realize.

Lambrix rattles off such workaday write-offs as "travel, hunting for a job, gas, resume copies ..."

It's the mundane things, he says, that are often slighted: The drive to Kinko's to print those linen-like resumes; the cost of putting together that glossy packet of your life's work; the faxes, mailings and overnight shipping -- all deductable.

"It's not a lot, but it adds up," he says.

A little math: A total of $1,000 in deductions, multiplied by 28 percent (the average tax rate) is $280 back in the hands that earned it.

Consider these little known money-savers you may have missed:

* Personal property tax -- on your car: This is a big one most miss, a tax included in the car's yearly registration.

* Accounting fees: The money you paid your accountant this year helps you next year.

* Employee expenses: Books, magazines, batteries, etc., not paid for by the company. (Those little things that pile up on your desk that go mostly unused.)

* Work clothes and uniforms: Pirates, toga-draped and fruited hat-clad casino icons, exotic dancers and other hotel/motel/club employees can turn those rags to riches.

* Gambling losses: OK, you have to lose more than you win. But Bingo Bettys who spend days in the cavernous game halls can turn in expenses.

* Moving expenses: Pack up those house plants and the box spring -- just don't crinkle up the invoice.

So, save everything and get ye to a CPA, accountants say.

Stalking Savings

What local entertainers knock off of their returns may seem extreme to the average tax form filer.

"It's expensive. You do everything you can to save money," says Thomas, who completes his own taxes, but sends his business paperwork, which includes bills for crafting elaborate illusions and other mystical deductions, to an accountant.

Thomas' act features white Bengal tigers, which eat up a lot of his paycheck.

He deducts, among other things, the cost of hundreds of pounds of raw beef and whole chickens from his taxes, as well as boxes of Ziploc Baggies for tiger bait (cubed beef), lint rollers for the silk costumes, his stage makeup and hay for the 8,000 square-foot tiger habitat just built in the back yard.

Avid discount shoppers, the Thomases stretch their money as far as possible, buying cheaper turkeys around the holidays for the five tax-deductable darlings in their back yard.

"(Stores allow) one per family, but we say it's for charity," Thomas says with a wink as Zeus, a 500-pound Bengal tiger, stalks visitors who walk past his 20-foot long cage, parting his mouth to show his thickly pointed teeth.

"Meet charity," Thomas says, rubbing the big cat's white- and orange-striped cheek.

Although most people won't have such a ... well, large deduction, a little research into tax laws and diligence can pay off.

But in their haste and fear of the Internal Revenue Service, many won't even try.

Local CPA Todd Udall, of Dunn & Udall, says that tackling taxes is like a trip to the dentist for much of the procrastinating public.

Like flossing, people don't want to do the work before they get to the office, he says.

"It's just a matter of gathering something," Udall says. "It's uncomfortable because they are not used to dealing with it and gathering all the information."

Aki, a showgirl in "Enter the Night" and a spokesmodel for the Stardust hotel-casino, keeps tidy, exhaustive records.

"Taxes suck," the Holland-born actress and world traveler says. "In America, it takes a lot of work. You have a whole year's worth of receipts and you have to make sure you don't throw away your receipts -- from Sav-On for your eyelashes and makeup at Macy's, and (clothes from) the sports stores."

Entertainers are considered a part of the independent business category to the IRS and are allowed a myriad of deductions -- from gym club memberships, cellular phones and photography bills to singing and acting lessons -- which can quickly add up to thousands.

Aki recently passed the Dutch law exam to complete her law degree. Still, she lets her trusted accountant tackle the looping layers of American tax laws, with their focus on detail.

"You have to protect yourself and save a little money, at least, and not let all your money go to the tax people," she says. "They are not going to call you and tell you that you paid too much. They are snakes."

Coming to take you away

Nevadans are a worried lot, Las Vegas psychologist Ward Swallow says.

"I've never had as many people who have expressed concern, particularly about the IRS collecting information about them," says Swallow, who practiced in the Midwest for 15 years before moving to Las Vegas last year.

"In an extreme sense, that represents paranoia. In persons where that is not a very strong illness, it comes from an independent spirit."

That pioneering spirit, which hearkens back to the days of the Old West, is alive and well here, he says.

"Nevadans as a whole are a very independent sort of folk," he says. "Quite a few Nevadans feel that the connection between the government and tax returns allows the government to collect (personal) information they should not have."

The more common tax trait of postponing the inevitable may run deeper than just a lazy attitude.

"Some people are responsible in all areas of their lives, they just have a procrastination problem in their personality, which is very common," Swallow says. "Then, some people are quite angry about the amount of money they have to send to the government every year. They use defense mechanisms and denial and they put it off until the last moment, when they get frightened and file."

As the old saying goes ...

"We are all brought up that there are only two things we can depend on -- we have to die and we have to pay taxes," Swallow says. "Eventually, because they recognize the significant consequences, they attempt to get right with the government."

Because the IRS is one of the few agencies that has direct contact with the public -- hopefully just once a year -- and the power to take your home or execute other scary consequences, it is viewed unkindly, to say the least, by the masses.

"Many people take out aggressions with their taxes -- the IRS is a wonderful target," Swallow says.

Udall's 15 years as a CPA has afforded him a middleman's view. "Some people perceive (the IRS) as sadistic, that it is targeting that person and wants to take them for all they have," he says. "We realize that they are human beings (at the) IRS. They are taxpayers just like we are."

But the fear remains for reluctant filers.

"Some clients come in and say, 'I just don't want to go to jail,' " Udall says, laughing. "It's not even like that. People fear something that really isn't there."

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