The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 9

ft Teetday, January 21, 1982 Till Dally Sintlnal, Grand Jvnctloa, Colorado Page I lifelines at wit's end Real estate law classes to be held The. University of Colorado, in cooperation with the Grand Junction Board of Realtors, will present a course in Advanced Real Estate Law on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from p.m., Feb. 2 through 25, at Mesa Federal Savings and Loan. The classes will be taught by Grand Junction attorney Bruce Phillips. The course will offer case studies of Colorado court decisions involving contract and agency law, and will emphasize to the agent contractual and fiduciary duties.

The course is eligible for G.R.I. credit, and has been approved for 15 units of continuing legal education. Tuition for the seminar is $95. Further registration information is available from the University's Cooperative Real Estate Certificate Program Office. Story Time at Mesa County Library Story Time for 4, 5, and 6-year-old children has begun at the Irene Wubben Children's Center of the Mesa County Public Library.

Sessions last about 40 minutes, and include fingerplays, singing, and special films on Occasion. Times for the story periods are Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m., and. Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. Parents are asked to register their lui A A II.ma aL 1. a (I Time management workshop offered Doris McCoy, a consultant from Golden, will lead a workshop on time management Feb.

17 at the Clenwood Springs Holiday Inn. McCoy is a nursing administrator with experience in group teaching. The workshop, run by Human Services Seminars, will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fee is $45.

Register by contacting Human Services Sem-' inars, 14075 Foothill Circle, Colden, CO 80401. Aerobic 'Dance-A-Thon' slated Sunday Volunteers are needed for the "Lung Power Aerobic Dance-A-Thon," to be held Jan. 31 at the Linco'n Park Bam. The event is a benefit for the American Lung Association of Colorado West, and is sponsored by the Aerobic Fitness Studio. Dancers will recruit sponsors for each 25-minute period that they complete.

The funds will be used to support lung disease programs in Western Colorado. Prizes will be awarded to the top fund raisers, and each participant will receive a special "Lung Power" t-shirt. For registration information, contact the Grand Junction office of the American Lung Association of Colorado. All participants must pre-register. STEEL TOE HEADQUARTERS Save From 1020 A Pair: Western Style and Lace Up Insulated and Non-Insulated Men's and Ladies' COG OOGGOOG Vm I 449 Colorado 245-1674 Grand Junction 1 i This school is our home.

Proof best hedge against IRS audit on entertainment New York Times Service As tax time approaches, so does deduction day, and with it the question of handling the entertainment expenses that are major items for professionals and for business executives with entertainment bills that are not reimbursed by their companies. The watchwords, tax experts stress, are be sure you can prove it" The rules about tax-deductible entertaining were little affected by former President Carters famous attacks on the three-martini lunch and left unchanged by last years tax act But a revenue-hungry government is sharpening its collection process, the cost of underpaying taxes is soaring, and last week, the Internal Revenue Service said it would soon be auditing twice as many returns as it has in recent years. While three years Is the normal limit for an audit, the IRS can go ftirther back in some cases by calling the Chidren's Center at the Library, and it recommends that you keep your records for at least six years. Substantiation is the biggest problem with deducting entertainment, said Barbara Weltman, an attorney who helps compile J.K. Lesser's Your Income Tax, an annual taxmanuaL Barry R.

Steiner, an accountant and former IRS official who writes Pay Less Tax Legally, another yearly guide, said entertainment is an area thats frequently going to be attacked by the IRS in the case of an audit; they know there are relatively easy adjustments that can be made to disallow items in entertainment, because its next to impossible for most people to comply with the record-keeping requirements. The tax rules remain broadly generous to the business person who is both hungry and hospitable. The 1978 Revenue Act did rule out deducting certain entertainment-related outlays, such as the cost of maintaining a yacht And the Tax Court has held that entertainment expenses run up by a professional may not be deducted on the sole ground that they furnish socializing that could generate business in the future. But generally speaking, the host can deduct from taxable income the cost of meals in restaurants and at home as long as it can be demonstrated that they have a business purpose. If the entertainment is at a nightclub, a baseball game, or at other such distracting locations, or if it is simply for the sake of generating good will, the host has to demonstrate ftirther that it is ordinary and necessary to his business.

And it has to fit one of two categories: It has to come right before or after what the Lasser manual calls a substantial and bona fide business discussion on a subject associated with the active conduct of business. Or it has to be tied directly to the active execution of the host's business matters. Deductible guests range from employees to potential customers. But tax experts say if a businessman entertains people from his own company, he must be ready to show that the entertainment had a business purpose. And as Sylvia Porter points out in Sylvia Porters 1982 Income Tax Book, the IRS frowns on two business associates taking one another to lunch every other day and trying to call the lunches tax-deductible.

Similarly, a doctor can deduct bona fide business entertainment of other doctors if, for instance, the guest doctors refer patients to the host doctor, Weltman said. But inviting personal friends to join a business-entertainment event may prejudice your tax deduction" although it would not violate a formal rule because it would tend to look more like a personal expense, she said. Nor is there a format rule limiting the cost of business entertainment, although Weltman warned that what would be reasonable for a carpet salesman might be quite different from what would be reasonable for a movie executive." Understandably, given that degree of freedom, deductions are big business. The IRS has said it is impossible to tot up the exact sum, but one Library of Congress survey produced an estimate that tax-deductible outlays for meals in 1976, when the cost of living was far lower, came to $3.2 billion. The Treasury requires that the host keep an entertainment diary or other current log that records costs, dates, locations, the nature of the entertainment involved, names of individual guests and their business relationship to the host, the business motivations or results of the entertainment, and details about business discussions before or af-.

ter the entertainment You should enter the Information in the log as soon after the entertainment event as practicable, warned Weltman. She cited a case a few years ago where a taxpayer presented an entertainment log to the IRS that looked as though the whole thing had been prepared at the same moment and that obviously didn't wash. Entertaining at home is particularly problematicaL "The record-keeping requirements are often overlooked," said Steiner. If you have liquor already around your house, you're probably not going to go out and buy more" in preparation for an evening of business entertainment, and then, in the event of an audit, it's very difficult to prove how much liquor was actually consumed in the 1 course of the evening" for lack of a receipt And so, he said, it is usually advisable in such cases to go out of your way to make a specific purchase of liquor for a particular event; and to make a specific purchase of food, too so that you also have a new receipt for food." Some business entertainment that takes place away from home can present fairly knotty problems, too, although the receipt requirement is simple: To support a deduction for a meal the host must keep the receipt if the bill is more than $25. Finally, the experts warn that being disallowed deduc-.

tions is getting veiy expensive in these high-interest days. The question of any penalties aside, interest due on disallowed amounts, now 12 percent a year, will jump to 20 percent on Feb. howhamma ma wwttM at ammtryl TRtVDR HOWARD US Ml iAMES R6MAA 1 iP hCD Awcftcwwmom imw $wc For the best in quality auto body repair and painting. R.B.Ecy 2944 Hwy 6 ft 24 PATERNITY FIDDLER 7:05 175 VTUPY-rQfl FILM Organized confusion describes desk best By Erma Bombeck Field Newspaper Syndicate A clean desk is overrated. They're promoted by the same people who spread rumors that neatness signifies an orderly mind and ranks right up there with clean fingernails and godliness.

My desk may be unstructured," but I know where everything is. Trust me. My expired library card is right here under the desk blotter along with the sales slips from Christmas 1978. That stack of folders over there on the floor is labeled MISCELLANEOUS. My reference books are right here under my feet for easy access.

Personal correspondence is in the Easter basket on the chair and in case I need a throat lozenge here they are tight in the drawer next to the holy card of Pope John. My "Good Morning, America" scripts are neatly arranged under the quilting frame, on that chair are notes for my next book, and that entire sofa holds column ideas. This desk drawer here holds a packet of summer poinsettia seeds, a wooden pig that holds a recipe in a clothespin, a ketchup packet from McDonald's, a column by Garry Willson John Lennon and a picture of a baby sucking on a stuffed animal of whom I have not the slightest notion who it is. And in this drawer is a piece of used carbon paper and a pair of prescription glasses with one eye missing. My husband visited my office last week and complained there was no place to sit.

He said i should get rid of some of this Junk. I promised him I'd clean out the center drawer in my desk, but I couldn't go through with it. I couldn't throw out the rock with my name on it that a retarded child from Illinois had made for me. 1 couldn't throw away a certificate for a free ice cream cone, or the picture of Barbara Howar and me taken in a dime store, or the one earring, Or th balloon from a carpet store opening, or my stamp that reads, "ERMA BOMBECK, LOVE GODDESS," or a book of 15-cent stamps, or the sewing--kit, or the badge that reads, "IF WEARER' IS FOUND DEPRESSED, ADMINISTER CHOCOLATE IMMEDIATELY." I did throw away a business card of a man I'd never heard of from Columbus, Ohio. My husband poked his head in my office yesterday and said, "Listen, give me the phone number off the card of that attorney in Columbus, Ohio, I asked you to file." You know something? That didn't even surprise me.

i ODD 'm a mother who is a victim of generation riptides. I Swim in the traditional waters where a child is married at the age of 18, has a baby at and a life-constricting mortgage by 21. But a funny thing happened to me on my way to the next generation. I encountered a tidal wave of freedom and independence that made sense. So, I also support the current waves that question why you have to be married before you're 30 or more.

I'm a contradiction and I know it. When my grown children can't support a seven-year-old car and feed themselves at the same time. I'm glad they're not married. When they blow a half week's salary on a Rolling Stones concert, I'm glad they're responsible only for themselves. When they reach a new plateau of accomplishment and realize they've done something they never thought they could do before, I share their pride.

But there are other days when they have only to walk in the front door to know on which waters I'm sailing. "Hi, Mom." "It's the end of the month. Why arent you out shopping for a husband before all the bargains are gone?" "You always said no one was good enough for me." "That's before I knew you. What about that nice boy who ordered wine with the dinner?" "He was shallow, insensitive, crude, chauvinis-- tic, married and bragged about setting fires." "No one's perfect." "He said you should lose about 20 pounds." "You were lucky the creep was convicted. So what about the other nice fella who loved Barry Manilow?" "He thought ERA stood for Earned Run Average." "And that nice boy who lived at home with his mother?" "He thought ERA stood for a detergent." 'Wiry are you punishing your mother? Is it because I am short and you don't like short people? because I never got 03 in the mornirwajo get your breakfast? Are you persecuting me for postdating checks for the tooth fairy? Why?" aftha LGST vC.

rrniv 'muc cWA' V. i fr. waW a-. fiCTUS b'AtDf NEWMAN FIELD ABSENCE OF HENRY FONDA 7:109:30 4 IJJunu. WAMMXH T'l t'i LEA TUN iiA REDS a mjumoumt ne-ruae 1A m.

Oat Skewing 7:33 STUNTMAN LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER ON THE ROOF AIRPLANE TIME AFTER TIME AND MANY, MANY MORE AS OUR FILM LIBRARY CONTINUES TO GROW. WE RENT PLAYERS TOO! DAVID P. NOFFSINGER. D.D.S. PLUS THE LARGEST SELECTION OF ATARI GAME CARTRIDGES IN TOWN, INCLUDING: SKEET SHOOT, CASINO, STAMPEDE, LASER BLAST.

AND MANY, MANY MORE GAMES. ATARf Lmh to Cur 6padam CcnrencG lurvW? Ccdri doicV)et3 0f; 3J CAD announce! the relocation of his practice in CHILDRENS DENTISTRY -1120 Wellington -Grand Junction SiSOi (303) 241-C37S Tate cuA offers 7 4 ft Hr S' 7. I I fieWeber Pell 4 rVone 245-3334 1st and Orchard L0video cotters Coronado Plaza 434-8751 Hours: Mon-Sat, 11am 7prn offk Wl onciiire. 7.