A benefit of working in the game industry . . .

[philreed]

When I was doing paid reviews for Shadis and Pyramid, along with some minor freelance work, I had the same problem. A few bones here and there, but as gaming books in and of themselves are so expensive, not a cost savings.

Yeah, I could see where not getting 80%+ of your income from the game industry could spoil the tax issue.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

You probably don't want to hear about the really great perk -- saving receipts of RPG products for tax time in order to write them off.

We can do that?

 

[Thanee]

If you are self-employed, you can reduce your taxes if you have spent money on stuff you need for your work (the cost is deducted from your gross income before taxes are figured out, basically, which in turn reduces the taxes you have to pay). If your work requires you to buy RPG products (or you can make them believe you need them for your work, anyways... "Hey, I need to keep myself updated on the market. Of course I need to buy 100,000 D&D miniatures for that!"), then you can do that, yes.

Bye
Thanee

 

[philreed]

If you are self-employed, you can reduce your taxes if you have spent money on stuff you need for your work

And I needed Iron Heroes and Spycraft 2.0 last week.

 

[jgbrowning]

We can do that?

Yep! It's one of the best benefits, IMHO. I also write off my research material given the nature of the books I write. Anything I use for my business is applied to my business.

joe b.

 

[Psion]

You probably don't want to hear about the really great perk -- saving receipts of RPG products for tax time in order to write them off.

I was expecting this to be post one.

 

[Smart]

And I needed Iron Heroes and Spycraft 2.0 last week.

And jealousy rears its ugly head in my life once again..

 

[MulhorandSage]

Besides hearing from people that use your work in a game, sometimes (thank you to the OGL!) you get to watch other designers incorporate some of your work into their own projects.

It's the little things like this that make this job so much fun.

Congratulations, Phil. It's very cool to see your work appreciated - and nothing shows appreciation more for a game than using it in actual play - and it's the sort of thing that builds a good spirit of community in the RPG industry.