IF that's the federal governement, then I'm glad they decreased the time to get the vendors paid. It was six weeks minimum back in the 80s/90s, as specified in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).

Actually, it hasn't been bad. In fact, for BAA contracts (I don't know about others or even it it's standard for all BAA contracts), you can request an advance of funds one quarter at a time. You generally receive payment within a week or two of invoicing (and since the amounts are specified in the contract, it makes sense that it shouldn't take them long) but you can't submit the invoice until the prior quarter's reports have been accepted and approved, which takes about two weeks. So you usually get a quarter's worth of fund somewhere around the end of the first month of that quarter. That works nice for us, because I bill my contract manager (i.e., my wife) at the end of each month.

I'm glad your working relatioinship with that employer was good enough for subcontracting and I hope you took the full tax advantage of being a small business owner.

We certainly try to. I think everything we have done will stand up to an audit and, if anything doesn't, I'm pretty sure that we have a strong case that everything was done in a good faith effort to be in compliance.

I wish you the very best in your future endeavors. Subcontracting to the wife eh ... there are some real implications if your not on time with her payments

She definitely has her own ideas regarding "interest and penalties", not to mention a rather novel means of "debt collection".

 

Could he maybe be reluctant because I'm not an official business, registered with the BBB , with an accounting dept. and such? Is there anything I need to do to make myself more of "business" instead of just "some random dude with a cell phone and a mulimeter", that might seal the deal?

He might be thinking that. He may also be thinking that he doesn't want to have one person working on it this week and someone else the following week.

One thing to consider is the risk exposure. If you do a bad job, for whatever reason, what are the potential damages that your boss might incur and what would you do if he then sued you for those damages? As a sole-proprietor, everything you own stands good for your business liabilities. So, at the very least, I recommend taking out an umbrella insurance policy, but make sure that it covers your professional liabilities as a sole-prop. I had a $2 million policy that cost me ~$120/yr.

The thing that I was unsure of was how much, if any, of the cost of that policy was treatable as a business expense. While the only reason I got the policy was because of the professional liability, it also covered my personal liability. In the end, I didn't deduct any of it but just kept it in a file of "potential expenses" that I would pull out if I ever were audited. I figured that showing that I had expenses that I thought might be claimable but that I didn't claim would help firm up the notion that I had been acting in good faith and, if they are going to disallow some that I claimed, then at least they were probably going to have to allow some that I didn't.

 

IRS Pub 535 Business Expenses Chapter 6 illustrates your insurance deductions.

Two of which are:

a. liability insurance

b. malpractice insurance that covers your personal liability for professioinal negligences resulting in injury or damage to patients or clients.

On edit ...

What I've been finding is that most don't take all their allowable expenses.

Of course one case the IRS lost in tax court was when a dancer had an enhancement done and the court called them a "stage prop" ... after all, it was done to increase her "tip" revenue.

 

IRS Pub 535 Business Expenses Chapter 6 illustrates your deductions.

Two of which are:

a. liability insurance

b. malpractice insurance that covers your personal liability for professioinal negligences resulting in injury or damage to patients or clients.

But what about insurance that covers not only your " personal liability for professioinal negligences resulting in injury or damage to patients or clients", but also your personal liability for your kid setting fire to the neighbor's house (i.e., non-professional liabilities).

 

Then it's best to have two policies ... one for business and one for personal (like the kids setting fire). Maybe the insurance company could break it out for you as far as costs go.