Is there an expert in tax law who can answer this question?

Question

Our school directors recently went to a seminar in Florida and spent 36,000 which exceeds the average income of most residents here. They took their families and the principal took his wife and most of them stayed far longer than the 3 day length of the seminar.

Shouldn't the costs for families be included as income on the board members taxes? I'm only asking because this happened to me once for company sponsored trips . When I left the company, they went back 3 years and submitted over 4,000 as income. I had to pony up the fine.

Answer 1

This could get a little tricky - you were an employee so it was taxable income to you.  School board members are typically not paid, so aren't employees.  So they don't HAVE income from the school district.  And they are the ones who are authorized to approve legitimate expenses for the district.

At a minimum though it's morally wrong, and is very likely also illegal under state law.  I'd get as large a group as possible to go to the next school board meeting and bring it up.  If they rule you out of order, go to the media.  It wouldn't be a bad idea to tip off the media ahead of time so they can have a reporter at the meeting if they normally don't cover it - in many places, local media routinely covers school board meetings.

It's not just an issue of taxable income.  They should have to pay back the costs for their families, and their extra stay over the cost of the meeting.  The district taxpayers shouldn't be responsible for paying that, even if the board members DID have to pay tax on it.  If you know of any lawyers living in your district, see if they'll look into what your state law is.

Answer 2

yep

Answer 3

These school board members are in for a rude awakening when they get their W-2s or 1099-Misc forms (depending on how they were paid).  The school will realize (thanks to media coverage) that they can't deduct the expenses and that the school must treat this as compensation if the money isn't paid back.