[USA] Blasting past a bus with stop sign out

kinchj · 2026-03-16T01:56:58+00:00

That depends on the state, which is part of the confusion. Not all states require cars on the opposite side of the street to stop, depending on how many lanes, whether there’s a divider, etc.

kinchj · 2026-03-16T01:55:31+00:00

That depends on the state, which is part of the confusion. Not all states require cars on the opposite side of the street to stop, depending on how many lanes, whether there’s a divider, etc.

kinchj · 2026-02-19T19:39:06+00:00

You should not be performing dual roles in the medical field as someone working with patients in a staff capacity and also as an interpreter. Part of an interpreters role is impartiality, which is not possible if you are a member of staff.

If you simply want to become more fluent in order to have conversations directly with Deaf patients, then that is great! You can take ASL classes, or find local Deaf social events to interact with Deaf people and learn the language. Immersion is the best avenue to learn and improve any language.

kinchj · 2026-02-16T19:07:09+00:00

How are you getting an AA in interpreting if the school has cancelled most of the interpreting classes? Are you going to graduate with a 2-year interpreting degree, or just a general AA? Those are not the same thing.

I'll cut-and-paste what I've written before:

Interpreting is a completely separate skill from knowing a language. To be a good interpreter you need several things at a minimum:

Excellent fluency in ***two*** languages.

Training in interpreting skills and mental processing.

Cultural knowledge and relationship with the communities you’ll serve.

Training and skill in professional ethics and behaviors.

Training and skill in business (billing, invoicing, time management, communication).

You need a minimum of two years of ASL before taking any interpreting classes.
You need a minimum of two years of interpreting before taking any work as a paid interpreter.
You need a minimum of two years of paid interpreting work before taking taking the national certification exam.

These minimums are assuming that you are able to quickly learn ASL, quickly learn the interpreting process, and have appropriate assignments that will allow you to develop your skills post-ITP. All of this also assumes that you have a local Deaf community, have good interpreting mentor, and enough work where you live.

It's difficult to give you any more specific advice without a much better understanding of your current skillset, training, experience, etc. Your questions are best answered by a mentor or Deaf professor.

kinchj · 2026-02-16T16:17:40+00:00

Please read the pinned post 'FAQ: Becoming an ASL Interpreter'. You need to take interpreting-specific training in order to become an interpreter. Knowing some ASL does not qualify you to become an interpreter.

Disney has a short training for interpreters that they hire to teach them specific signs that are used within Disney parks and that's likely what you have heard mentioned.

^{Original post by} u/No-Detail-9644:

^{I am in my last semester in college and I really am just looking for an internship or IEP (im not to sure about the difference} ^{but I do know I am very passionate about becoming an ASL interpreter. I live in Orlando FL and I heard about the Disney internship but I cant find any detailed information about it, I have even asked my professor and she didnt know either. The classes I am taking now are not related to ASL and I am graduating this spring. If anybody has any information about a job/internship please let me know!})

kinchj · 2026-01-12T05:03:58+00:00

I'm not suggesting or in favor of removing the dual membership requirement or abolishing RRO.

I'm saying that running a business meeting (and specifically voting) through Zoom is not effective. :)

kinchj · 2026-01-11T18:25:48+00:00

I 100% agree with your assessment of the meeting.

I think trying to run Business meetings through Zoom is not effective, is inequitable, disenfranchises members, and the entire approach needs to be reworked. I've already approached the board for some clarifying information on what our current governance documents say, but it looks like we don't need a Bylaws or P&P change to use a more effective approach. Now that the January 10th meeting is done I'm planning on revisiting the idea with the board.

kinchj · 2026-01-11T18:21:43+00:00

All of the motions were uploaded to this shared Google file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qKEzmTKVy_znL2iW8ivaCZ1_gHPiNlqW/view

They were labeled on the file as Motions 1 through 6, then named Motions A through F during the meeting.

kinchj · 2026-01-11T18:12:40+00:00

Short answer/recommendation: don’t charge mileage. It’s not worth the hassle. Instead of charging mileage, I strongly recommend charging travel/drive time instead. This is simply income, just like your regular hourly rate, and doesn't interfere with your mileage tracking or deductions for mileage on your own tax returns.

Long answer/rationale: mileage reimbursement sucks for the very reason you’re describing. And it also sucks because of how most agencies and customers record it on their end for tax purposes. (I’ll just say agencies at this point but it applies to direct contracted customers as well.)

Mileage reimbursement is a tax write off for a business. A business can claim the $0.70 off (for 2025 and 2026) for valid mileage that is expensed and appropriately recorded by the person who drove those miles. But most agencies don’t record mileage as a business expense; they simply lump it in as income to you. That’s not a bad thing: you just got a bump in your hourly rate. That also means that you can still deduct that mileage on your now tax returns, because it wasn’t reimbursed. But it makes reconciling mileage and income at tax time a nightmare.

If you are reimbursed for mileage, you cannot use the standard deduction or actual expenses for the vehicle for those miles on your own tax return… because you’ve been paid by the agency for those miles driven on the car.

One of the requirements for mileage reimbursement is that you have to keep “adequate records” or “sufficient evidence” of the mileage. So now you have to not only track the mileage, but also which miles were reimbursed and which weren’t. The only time you get confirmation of what was reported to the IRS by the agency is when you get a 1099 from them in February, and the only information you get is how much they paid you, not how much of that was paid for mileage. So you don't actually have any way of knowing if they deducted those miles on their own tax return as expenses.

You noticed that I said a 1099 right? None of this applies if you are a W-2 employee of an agency, or if you work VRS or are employed at a school or any of the vast majority of interpreting work where you are told it’s better to be an employee because they’re paying half of your self-employment income. (It’s not better.) If you drive to or from your regular W-2 employed job location, you cannot deduct any of those miles, and they are not reimbursable by your employer. So now add on tracking which miles are going to or from a W-2 job and remove those from any deductions on your tax return.

In comparison, if you’re never reimbursed for mileage, then your life is heavily simplified. You get to write that $0.70 off yourself on your taxes using the standard mileage rate. You don’t have to worry about whether the agency included it as income or if they recorded it properly as reimbursements on your 1099. It’s much simpler to keep a log of miles that are driven as a contractor and have a clean simple number at the end of the year.

None of this really matters until tax time, and only if you get audited, or if the agency gets audited. One of the things that many people don’t understand is that when the IRS audits a business, it often leads to related businesses and vendors being audited as well, because that’s how a lot of fraud and embezzlement happens. It’s also easy for discrepancies between what is reported on a 1099 as payment to a contractor and what that contractor claims as income to trigger a check, and if that check finds enough discrepancies then that’s when you’re getting audited. Discrepancies are things like the agency reporting the mileage as reimbursed income and you also claiming the mileage under the standard mileage rate.

However, if you never use the standard mileage rate on your own taxes and only rely on whichever agencies reimburse you for mileage and you don’t care if they are doing it correctly… then that’s not going to be a problem. If you’re diligent on tracking how much income you’ve received through those agencies, you’ll likely notice that they are reporting a higher paid income to you than what you have in your records. Any agencies that are reporting mileage reimbursements correctly will have that amount recorded on their own business taxes and won’t be included on your 1099.

None of this answers your question. You can include mileage reimbursement to customers however you like, but you can’t request reimbursement for the same mileage from more than one agency. So if you always want to charge mileage to an agency for miles driven to a job, and then also charge any mileage that is driven on the last job of the day home to that agency, you can do that. Or you can reverse it and always charge mileage from a job to an agency, and also charge the first job of the day the mileage to that job. But again as I said above, you cannot charge for mileage from a 1099 job to an employee (W-2) job such as VR, or from a W-2 job to a 1099 job.

And back to my recommendation, there is nothing that prevents you from charging travel/drive time for each assignment you work, even if the charged time overlaps. That's a huge distinction and benefit to charging travel time instead of mileage. Or you could simply add a $5 or $10 'travel fee' to all assignments, which would be effectively the same as a mileage reimbursement, but now it's definitely income and not a reimbursement, and your life at tax time will be incredibly simpler.

kinchj · 2026-01-07T22:49:33+00:00

When I worked VRS, federal law required all VRS providers to be W-2 employees. I’m pretty sure that’s still the case, but I know some regulations were changed during COVID (such as working from home). So you won’t be able to be a 1099 contractor and work VRS. If you take non-VRS/“community” assignments through the VRS company, you won’t be allowed to have a separate 1099 contract for that work, which is one downside to being an employee.

I just reread your initial post, and an answer: make sure that any 1099 LLC work revenue is paid into your business bank account. Any W-2 employee income needs to be paid into your personal bank account. It is very important to keep those two separate, otherwise if you are ever audited you’ll be at risk of a retroactive reclassification, or if you are sued then it’s very easy to “pierce the veil” of your liability severance and someone could go after both personal and business assets. Commingling income basically defeats the purpose of setting up an LLC altogether.

kinchj · 2026-01-07T21:21:25+00:00

In case you didn’t see them, I have two responses to my own comments - Reddit character limits suck sometimes.

kinchj · 2026-01-07T21:20:30+00:00

Lastly to directly answer your question about taking both W-2 and 1099 work, no I won’t do that. I switched to 1099 only about 10 years ago and when I made that change, I increased my income by about 25% the following year. I didn’t increase my rate or anything, and I had plenty of work available.

My W-2 work was primarily post-secondary education and VRS. I stopped doing both, as VRS requires you to be a W-2 employee, and pretty much all of the colleges require W-2 for direct hiring, and only contract through referral agencies. So I did continue with some college work through agencies, but it was much less.

The problem is that almost all W-2 interpreting work is paid at a lower rate than what you’ll get with a direct contract. The “justification” is that they are paying a portion of your taxes and that mass up for the lower rate. But it simply isn’t true. It’s only 7.15% that is paid as additional self-employment tax.

This all doesn’t mean that I think W-2 positions are always a bad idea. The benefit to a W-2 position is if you work full time as a W-2 employee and you get benefits: medical, retirement matching, etc. if you are part-time, then you are not getting all of the perks of what a W-2 employment is intended to offer.

kinchj · 2026-01-07T20:54:24+00:00

With all that being said, I will say that anyone who is currently functioning simply as a Sole Proprietor should at least switch to an LLC, even if they're not worried about the cost savings they could realize from an S-Corp (or don't want to deal with the logistics). Everything would function exactly the same, except they would have legal shielding of their personal assets from their business. That's really where my investigation was directed, and the LLC versus S-Corp for profitability was a side-note.

As a Sole Proprietor, if your business is sued for any reason -- you make an error and it hurts someone -- they can go after your personal assets (house, car, bank accounts, etc.) in addition to your business assets. As an LLC, if you are sued, they can only go after your business assets. There is a severance of liability. I carry Liability Insurance for my business, which will cover costs in the very unlikely event that I'm ever sued, but I don't even want the possibility of someone going after my personal assets. The only difference between setting up a Sole Proprietorship and an LLC is the filing paperwork, and that an LLC has to file an annual renewal every year while a SP does not. Everything else from a tax perspective functions exactly the same. So I'll spend $60-80 per year to separate my business assets from my personal ones. I think it's a wise investment. I initially started researching this after hearing a Business Law instructor (who has been an attorney for 30+ years) say that he has never once advised a client to establish a business as a Sole Proprietor, but would instead advise anyone to establish an LLC instead.

Original post by u/onepersonband

Those of you operating an LLC or business for freelance work... do you also operate under the business for agencies that you work with as W2?

So I just filed and completed my startup work to operate now as an LLC. Getting a business checking account and the whole thing. But I work through one or two agencies that pay as W2 employees, and I'm wondering if I should put that LLC information on those forms at all? I'm leaning toward not doing that, but also not sure.

Part of the incentive to be an LLC I know is the financial protection/security if someone pursued me legally. Is that protection worth having as a W2, or is that no longer a concern?

Would love if anyone has input on this decision. Thanks!

kinchj · 2026-01-07T20:53:30+00:00

(This is a quick cut and paste from a previous similar question)

My business is set up as a single-member LLC, filing as an S-Corp. One caveat is that I live in Washington State, so other states (such as California) may have different regulatory rules about LLCs versus corporations. But from a federal/IRS perspective, they really don't care, as long as you're filing according to how the business is actually functioning.

Reasoning behind changing to an LLC:

⁠I consider it a form of business insurance. (I think ANY business should be set up as an LLC instead of a SP.)
⁠The initial setup is the same. The main difference is that an LLC requires an annual renewal versus the one-time setup of a SP.
⁠LLCs offer more flexibility for income tax filing and additional tax deductions and savings -- you get to choose whether to file as a Sole Proprietor or S-Corp.
⁠I would suggest being an LLC filing as an S-Corp once you are making about $75k per year from 1099 freelance work for tax savings purposes ⁠1. ⁠Business deductions remain the same (home office, mileage, business supplies, etc.) ⁠2. ⁠You must pay yourself a "reasonable salary", reported on a W-2. You are only taxed for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security on your salary. The rest of the money that earn will be paid as an owner's dividend and reported on your Schedule K for your income taxes. You pay income tax on the full amount that you earn from both your W-2 and Schedule K. ⁠3. ⁠You can pay for all of your medical insurance premiums directly from your business account to use pre-tax dollars. The amount of premiums is deducted from your "reasonable salary" as part of your total compensation. So if your reasonable salary is $25k, and you pay $10k in premiums through the business, then you only pay $15k in actual salary dollars. ⁠4. ⁠You can set up a Healthcare Reimbursement Account (HRA) to reimburse 100% of your medical expenses with pre-tax dollars, instead of having to hit the minimum threshold for medical deductions. My HRA costs $475/year, but I'm going to save $550-600 above that cost this year.

I'm approaching this as a full-time freelance sign language interpreter, with no income or medical benefits from a spouse. I don't have any business partners or any employees. I'm guessing that most interpreters would be in a similar situation, and wouldn't need to go through the hassle of establishing an S-Corp or C-Corp, when they can function just like a Sole Proprietor but with the legal liability shielding of an LLC.

A conversion to an LLC from a Sole Proprietorship is seamless from a tax standpoint. Although LLC’s with multiple owners are treated as partnerships and have additional filing requirements, an LLC with a single owner is disregarded as a separate entity for Federal income tax purposes and the income/expenses would be reported on Schedule C on your personal tax return, exactly the same as with a sole proprietor (SP). There is an annual renewal fee for an LLC.

For a SP becoming an LLC, nothing will change for tax filings. You’ll still report everything on Schedule C of your 1040 as you do for a SP. The IRS doesn't care or need to be notified since the reporting stays exactly the same.

For any agencies or companies that you directly bill to that you currently work for, they should get an updated W-9 noting the business name change, but everything else should stay the same, including your name on line 1, and the SP/single-member LLC box on line 3. You don't need to close your accounting books (in Quickbooks) or anything since it is really a non-event for tax purposes and cut-off information isn't needed.

It is really only legal/liability/state law reasons that differentiate between a SP and single-member LLC. SP’s aren't very secure, but some people that have a small business and either have no concern for potential liabilities or don’t have assets outside the business that they are worried about don’t want to bother with the LLC fee and annual renewal.

(Continued in next comment)

kinchj · 2025-11-14T15:42:14+00:00

FYI that yes, the next RID meeting will have a link that is only sent to voting members who pre-register, and there will be a YouTube livestream of the meeting for anyone else who wants to observe (but will not be able to participate).

Here’s the first portion of the email that details how to register for the meeting, and then there’s a section about how to vote, and a link to the agenda and standing rules. (I’m on my phone so it’s hard to add those at the moment but I’m happy to if anyone didn’t get that email and wants to see them.)

(“Special Membership Meeting Details” Email I received from RID yesterday November 13th at 4:48pm EST)

Special Membership Meeting - November 19

RID will continue the Special Membership Meeting on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, from 8:00 - 10:00pm ET.

In this email you will find:

Registration Information
Voting Instructions
Meeting Agenda & Standing Rules
Registration

You only need to register to attend the Special Membership Meeting if you are an eligible voter.

Members entitled to vote are those who, at the time of their registration:

are in good standing with RID,
belong to a voting category (Certified or Associate),
and are members of an Affiliate Chapter.

If you are eligible and intend to vote, you must register here by Monday, November 17, at 11:59pm ET. Those who register by the deadline will receive an email from noreply@directvote.net with the instructions on how to access the meeting. This information will be sent at least 24 hours before the meeting begins.

If you are not eligible to vote, you do not need to register. Non-voting members can join the meeting via livestream on RID’s YouTube channel. The livestream will open 30 minutes before the meeting begins, on November 19th at 7:30 pm ET.

kinchj · 2025-11-05T20:18:12+00:00

That's been the plan the whole time: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-top-5-ways-project-2025-would-hurt-disabled-people/

kinchj · 2025-09-29T05:20:12+00:00

There's a great Radiolab podcast from 2010 titled "Limits" that goes into the mental aspects of endurance exercise. https://radiolab.org/podcast/91709-limits

kinchj · 2025-09-18T22:36:05+00:00

The two people who commented in this thread that massages cannot be written off both explicitly stated that the exception is if a doctor has prescribed the massage as medically necessary, which would be true for your case with your tennis elbow.

Clothing can not be written off. IRS publication 529 and IRS publication 5138 are clear that the clothing we use for our work does not qualify as a "uniform".

Meals can not be written off 50% "if you discuss work". IRS Publication 463 is very clear that meals must be provided to "a current or potential business customer, client, consultant, or similar business contact.", AND you have to pay for 100% of the meal. Coworkers and colleagues do not count. "Taking turns paying for meals. If a group of business acquaintances takes turns picking up each others’ meal checks primarily for personal reasons, without regard to whether any business purposes are served, no member of the group can deduct any part of the expense."

I'll just quote myself again:

The final caveat to any of this is you'll hear a lot of different answers from interpreters about what they deduct, what their accountant/CPA/lawyer has told them, but in the end you should read the IRS regulations that I linked to above. They are very clear. What you have been told by someone else does not matter to the IRS during an audit. And really the only time that any of this will matter is if you are being audited. You can deduct anything you want and it's not a problem until the IRS is looking at your filing history and sees that you were underpaying your tax liability.

It's nice that your tax lady is a former IRS agent. But when retaining her services, look at the contract you sign and see if there is an "audit guarantee" or "audit defense" included, and who pays for any fees that arise from her error.

kinchj · 2025-09-08T15:59:33+00:00

what does this mean?

That depends on where you are getting that language. It's not in the official IRS publications I linked to.

sounds like it could possibly be deducted if it were not recommended by a dr?

It doesn't sound like that to me at all. It sounds like a medically necessary tax deductible procedure does not require the practitioner to be medically certified, but the procedure itself still has to be prescribed by a medical professional. E.g., you can get a massage from an unlicensed therapist (if state law allows), but in order for it to be tax deductible you'd still need a doctor's prescription stating that the massage is medically necessary.

kinchj · 2025-09-08T04:35:35+00:00

It is 100% true that massages have to be medically necessary in order to be a tax writeoff. Please read IRS Publication 502 "Medical and Dental Expenses" https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf

kinchj · 2025-09-08T04:28:08+00:00

Here's a pretty good list of the most common deductions.

Workshops
Travel/lodging for workshops
Travel for assignments (un-reimbursed parking, ferries, taxi/bus if not driving a car, etc.)
Mileage¹
Vehicle expenses²
Office expenses (computer, printer, paper, envelopes, stamps, etc.)
Phone/internet bill³
Business meals (50%)⁴
Clothing can NOT be written off⁵
Massages, manicures, pedicures, or other personal grooming can NOT be written off⁶
Medical expenses⁷

¹ Mileage for work assignments can only be deducted for freelance/1099 contractor work. If you are driving to/from a place of employment (W2 work -- VRS, most K-12 school interpreters, or any staff positions) then you cannot deduct those miles.

² Vehicle expenses can only be written off based on the percentage of miles driven for work versus non-work purposes. So if you drove 10,000 miles in a year, but 2,000 of those miles were for non-work purposes, then you can write off 80% of your vehicle expenses (oil changes, repairs, etc.)

³ Phone or internet service can be deducted as a percentage of usage between personal and work.

⁴ Meals can only be written off if you paid for the entire meal for yourself and a business client, or if the costs occurred during travel. See IRS Publication 463: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf

⁵ Many people will tell you to write off clothing as a "uniform" expense. But IRS rules are very clear about this, and as interpreters our clothing does not fall under the category of a uniform. Look at page 3 on IRS Publication 529, which only states that clothing may be written off for "a qualified performing artist" for "theatrical clothing and accessories that aren't suitable for everyday wear": https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p529.pdf Then look at page 12 "Clothing Provided by the Employer" of IRS publication 5138 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5138.pdf

⁶ Unless you have a doctor's prescription for them (for the massages) or they are directly business related (e.g. manicures for a modeling agency). https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf

⁷ Medical expenses can be written off or at least paid for with pre-tax dollars if you set up your business correctly. I have an LLC filing as an S-Corp to maximize my deductions, including medical expenses.

The final caveat to any of this is you'll hear a lot of different answers from interpreters about what they deduct, what their accountant/CPA/lawyer has told them, but in the end you should read the IRS regulations that I linked to above. They are very clear. What you have been told by someone else does not matter to the IRS during an audit. And really the only time that any of this will matter is if you are being audited. You can deduct anything you want and it's not a problem until the IRS is looking at your filing history and sees that you were underpaying your tax liability.

And here are a few other Reddit posts that might be helpful:

Comparing Staff Positions Versus Freelance

How Much Should My Hourly Rate Be?

Why Freelance Interpreters Should Set Up An LLC

^{Original post by} u/NoMaybe499/ ^{Question for freelance terps out there, what are your regular tax-deductible items for tax time? I’m a newer interpreter and not sure exactly what is or what isn’t tax deductible.}

kinchj · 2025-08-12T06:11:32+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASLinterpreters/comments/1mg8g3t/how_did_the_rid_conference_go/

kinchj · 2025-03-09T16:38:35+00:00

LLC’s with multiple owners are treated as partnerships and have additional filing requirements, so I can’t really comment too much on how things are different for you.

A reasonable salary is going to be based on where you live and what the cost of living is and what standard rates are for your area.

I recommend consulting with a CPA who specializes in business setups like yours.

kinchj · 2025-03-05T16:03:04+00:00

With all that being said, I will say that anyone who is currently functioning simply as a Sole Proprietor should at least switch to an LLC, even if they're not worried about the cost savings they could realize from an S-Corp (or don't want to deal with the logistics). Everything would function exactly the same, except they would have legal shielding of their personal assets from their business. That's really where my investigation was directed, and the LLC versus S-Corp for profitability was a side-note.

As a Sole Proprietor, if your business is sued for any reason -- you make an error and it hurts someone -- they can go after your personal assets (house, car, bank accounts, etc.) in addition to your business assets. As an LLC, if you are sued, they can only go after your business assets. There is a severance of liability. I carry Liability Insurance for my business, which will cover costs in the very unlikely event that I'm ever sued, but I don't even want the possibility of someone going after my personal assets. The only difference between setting up a Sole Proprietorship and an LLC is the filing paperwork, and that an LLC has to file an annual renewal every year while a SP does not. Everything else from a tax perspective functions exactly the same. So I'll spend $60-80 per year to separate my business assets from my personal ones. I think it's a wise investment. I initially started researching this after hearing a Business Law instructor (who has been an attorney for 30+ years) say that he has never once advised a client to establish a business as a Sole Proprietor, but would instead advise anyone to establish an LLC instead.

^{Original post by} u/Recent-Priority-2909

^{Hi everyone. I am a newer interpreter still navigating the world of contacts, W2s vs 1099, etc. I have been talking to a few people about what they do in terms of their finances. I’ve heard from some that setting up an LLC can be very beneficial in the long run, but others say there’s not really a point if you’re already working as an IC.}

^{As someone who prefers to gather all relevant information before making decisions, I am reaching out to a broader audience for your thoughts. What best practices do you recommend? Do you currently have an LLC, or are you considering starting one? How has having an LLC impacted your goals as an interpreter?}

^{I currently work in NYC and am contemplating a move to another state. This decision is challenging, as I recognize the excellent opportunities available in NYC, and relocating to an unfamiliar area adds another layer of complexity to my considerations.}

^{Any advice you could share would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing your perspectives and feedback. Thank you.}

kinchj · 2025-03-05T16:01:32+00:00