The first New York production in English of Arthur Schnitzler’s monumental but much-maligned play, “Professor Bernhardi,” has opened at the TBG Theatre in Manhattan.

This towering work, set in fin de siècle Vienna, deals with topics that resonate today – even as they led to the play’s being banned in Vienna until the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire and in much of the rest of Central Europe as well. It opened in Berlin in 1912, and subsequently, was banned and burned by the Nazis. The play deals with reason versus religion, science versus theology, “churches versus hospitals,” and at the core, abortion and anti-Semitism.

Professor Bernhardi, the title character, is a distinguished and highly respected physician and professor who heads a private medical institute and is a Jew. A young woman suffering from septicemia resulting from “an illegal operation” is dying—and alone. The doctor injects her with a substance that puts her in a state of euphoria, thinking that’s she’s recovering and her lover will soon take her away.

The nurse informs a priest who comes to give the 18-year-old her last rites. Prof. Bernhardi is intent on shielding his patient from the knowledge that she’s dying and refuses to allow the priest to enter her room. While the priest and doctor are arguing the nurse tells the patient that the priest has come. The young woman grasps the reality of her situation and dies.

It is from this that all the subsequent action stems: the prosecution of Prof. Bernhardi on grounds of hostility to religion and of ignoring the sentiments of the 85% Catholic population.

The play is rich in irony taking on church, state, hypocrisy at all levels and the zeal of converts. That said, Schnitzler endows all the characters with humanity, even those whose views are clearly antipathetic to his own. The play is considered a comedy but the laughter is bitter.

The Marvell Rep is to be commended for presenting this almost forgotten play, a massive undertaking given the huge cast and three-hour length. The company’s entire season is devoted to works that have been banned/burned for whatever reason. Being banned doesn’t necessarily attest to a work’s worth, but conscience demands that it be examined. (Time was that U.S. producers hoped their plays would be banned in Boston because that virtually assured huge audiences elsewhere.)

While “La Ronde” is arguably Schnitzler’s best-known work and “Anatole” is also familiar, “Professor Bernhardi” is considered by many to be Schnitzler’s masterpiece and it may be Schnitzler’s most personal piece. The Schnitzlers, both father and Arthur, were physicians lending a verisimilitude to the medical matters central to the play.

The Schnitzlers were also Hungarian, Hungarian Jews, but prior to 1900 Jewishness was irrelevant: One was simply “Hungarian” if one spoke Hungarian, which few other than Hungarians did. (Anti-Semitism did not manifest in Hungary until after 1900 when waves of Jewish immigrants, fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe, arrived en masse. The anti-Semitism, however, was not directed against Hungary’s Jews, but rather at the newcomers. Not until Hitler’s ascendancy were Hungary’s Jews targets.)

So one can only imagine the Schnitzlers’ shock at discovering Vienna’s anti-Semitism, veiled, genteel, beneath the surface, but bubbling up. This despite a vibrant Jewish presence in the city’s cultural life, particularly the arts, sciences and philosophy. Arthur Schnitzler could view the phenomenon as an outsider and dissect it as a scientist. (It’s almost impossible to imagine Vienna at this period without recognizing the huge presence and magnificent contribution of Vienna’s Jews – Freud, Mahler, Schoenberg, Wittgenstein and Werfel for starters.)

Now to this production:

It’s tasteful, beautifully directed by Lenny Leibowitz and the cast is heroic. As the title character, Sam L. Tsoutsouvas injects the life force with a level of energy that lights up the sky and carries the work to its unexpected conclusion. The play, which bears resemblances to both Ibsen and Shaw, demands much of the performers and largely these demands are met.

Special praise must be accorded to Kevin Gilmartin who combined dignity and passion as Pflugfelder; Chip Kipniak as the insidious, self serving Ebenwald; and Marc Geller, as the fiery Lowenstein.

Kudos to all at the Marvell who courageously took on this play and a whole season of works to which those in power at various times would have denied us access.

Marvel Rep offerings can be seen at the TBG Theatre, 312 West 36th Street, 212-518-6085. “Professor Bernhardi” runs through Feb. 28.

Much of the world knows New York City as the multifaceted metropolis that’s a mecca for the arts – Theater: Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway; Opera: the Met, City Center, the La Selva Grand Opera; Symphonic music: the New York Philharmonic, concerts at Carnegie Hall, chamber music hither and thither; Dance, and the visual arts with museums and galleries in abundance. Also, countless restaurants catering to every ethnic taste and budget.

And Manhattan is arguably the financial center of the world and the hub of communications media.

But would any of this be possible without the services the city offers? The firefighters are world renown, but what of the other departments? We may grouse about the subway system, with many cars and some stations seemingly falling apart, but it runs 24/7. Try getting on a subway at midnight on a Saturday in London. If you're lucky enough to catch it, it will be the last train 'till morning.

We may carp at some of the idiotic rules of the Sanitation department – the fine for putting neatly wrapped trash in a city can is higher than for tossing it in the street. But garbage/trash collections are made regularly. One may think fondly of the Bay of Naples, but not of Neapolitan garbage disposal.

Which brings us to the lifeline of 911 and subsequent EMS services. An example:

On Nov. 17, after finishing a leisurely lunch, my husband (Alan Rude) reached for a glass of water, but couldn’t grasp it. He tried to stand, but couldn’t. Then his speech became incoherent.

It was 2:15. I dialed 911; there was an immediate response. I said I thought my husband was having a stroke. Instantly I was transferred to the medical unit. I described the symptoms.

At 2:30, barely 15 minutes after I’d called, EMS people were at the door, accompanied by security guards from our Penn South building. My husband was quickly gotten into an ambulance, with me next to him. The para-medics were splendid, monitoring Alan’s vital signs and reporting as we sped to NYU Medical Center’s ER where an emergency stroke team awaited us.

There’s a three-hour window for treatment of a stroke if major damage is to be averted. Alan was being treated within 45 minutes.

After hours of treatment Alan went from the emergency room to the hospital and subsequently to Rusk for rehabilitation, then to Village Care. Now thanks to Medicare, he’s getting therapy at home and in about a month will get more as an out-patient.

The bottom line is that Alan’s speech is excellent (perfect when he remembers to use his lips vigorously – some numbness/paralysis remains on the right side of his mouth); his handwriting is what it was before the stroke although he writes more slowly; he uses the computer mouse easily and agilely. Walking, the biggest challenge, is progressing. He walks unaided (if somewhat unsteadily) in the apartment, with a cane elsewhere. A complete recovery is anticipated.

None of this is likely to have occurred had we lived elsewhere. The 44-year-old sister-in-law of a doctor friend resides in a rural area with no near primary-care facilities. Although she was a shining example of one who did everything right – good weight, exercise, healthy life style – her stroke was neither recognized nor treated for more than a day and the resulting damage – speech, cognitive — is still with her some four years later.

So cheers for New York City’s 911, EMS, NYU Medical Center’s ER, hospital, Rusk unit and the splendid Dr. Keith A. Siller.

I should add that in the years I’ve lived in Manhattan I’ve had three occasions on which I called 911: in 1975, 2000, and last November, 2011. In each instance the response has been swift, efficient, courteous and the results completely satisfactory.

I feel more and more as if I'm being distracted by reporter standups rather than being further edified about the story.

Movement: most news directors prefer to see you moving or doing something in your stand-up. After all - it's video. But walking down a supermarket aisle for no reason (hmmm...is that the soup aisle? Oh no - I think I see canned meats) only serves to make you look silly - and to distract me. If you think I'll believe that you happened to stop exactly at the boxed macaroni - a fabulous coincidence so that you could reach for it (almost without looking! Wow!) and use it as a crutch. Naah. Too cheesy.

Or last night, I watched a story about free eye surgeries for lucky people. The reporter suddenly appeared from around a corner in a hospital hallway - wearing scrubs - with the facemask dangling around his neck. I'd learned nothing about what the eye surgeries entailed - other than better vision. I only saw b-roll of what looked like surgeons in an OR. But here was the reporter - decked out like the doctor he perhaps always wanted to be. There was nothing in the package that led us to believe he'd been in the OR...nor did he refer to his outfit to explain if perhaps it was a germ-related necessity on that floor. It came across as a 'look ma! I'm a doctor'. It also didn’t help that it was two days before Halloween.

I feel the urge to remind you that it's not about you - it's about the story - and those who are part of it or effected by it. Sure, if there's something interesting or cogent that can be explained better by movement - that's great. 'Watch how this fabric ignites'...or 'listen to the engine on this bus'. Yes - walking might work too. E.g. walking to bring us along in a particular area so we can appreciate the story even more. E.g. , "the entire length of this curb" or "each of the five houses on this street" or "walking on this particular block can be dangerous because of [these tree roots/this dim lighting/the proximity to traffic, etc.]" A client once returned to the site of a tree that had toppled killing several young girls in a schoolbus. She did her own shooting. She positioned her camera on sticks and shot herself kneeling by the dirt where the tree had been. She scooped some soil and showed us how dry and sandy it was as it ran through her fingers. She did this while telling us about the investigation to determine if the soil in the area was too sandy to have sustained that particular species of tree.

Some of you may enjoy the drama of the standup and choose to milk it a bit. I watched a reporter step out from the smoke left by the fire that decimated an area in Texas. He too had a medical mask dangling around his neck. My concern was that he didn't refer to the smoke or tainted air or to the burnt vegetation around him. Yes, he talked about how devastating the fire had been but like the reporter in the food aisle and the reporter magically showing up in the hospital corridor, there was no reference to what we were looking at or to what he was experiencing ("the smoke here is still so thick that doctors say..." or "24 hours ago these burnt and singed bushes were..." ).

You are not in a contest to bring back the most clever or viral standup. Ideally you can show us something interesting in your standup...or at the very least 'just stand there' and explain where you are and why it's significant. You are on camera to communicate with us personally - not to assume the Shakespearean role of 'I'm on TV and you're not'. We all have different personalities. If five of us covered the same story the packages would not look the same.

But Shakespeare got it: "To thine own self be true". Trust yourself...and let the 'wings of your journalism' carry you to your best decision.

And as always - thank you for all that you do.

A Freaky 30-Year Cycle

I've been asked for my thoughts on how journalism has changed since 9/11. Upon contemplation I see us repeating an unexpected 30-year cycle:

The official American presence in Viet Nam ended in 1975. Gone were the bleak statistics...the angry politics...the ever-louder anti-war demonstrations...the news video covering the mayhem of war...the flag-draped coffins...the shattered veterans...and the grim anchors and reporters.

What happened next, however, pushed me over the edge - and into my business in 1981. Happy Talk! Cheerful, nattering anchors...clever, sometimes clown-like reporters...it was a journalism circus! Who could be more clever or memorable?

I was incredulous. What happened to the 'Hippocratic Oath' of journalism to do no harm? To edify the nation through solid reporting?

Things settled down a bit but the harm seemed permanent.

Then came September 11, 2001. We reverted to serious reporting. And once again - over these past 10 years - we began shaking off the cloud. Some classic video standards were seen as obsolete or reporters chose to shake them off. Jump cuts were OK - hey, tech rules. Loosen up! The white balance is off? What's your problem? Some elements seem to have been abandoned in teaching: writing out of SOT's? What's that? The creativity contest was in full swing. Writing car sales statistics with your finger on a dirty windshield! Measuring snowfall with a yardstick while you froze your butt off and risked hypothermia! How clever!

But the backlash has begun. My 19 year old god-daughter recently complained about a chipper reporter standing in the hurricane with disco-earrings flapping in the wind. Reporters standing in flood water at the risk of electrocution are being mocked. 'Journalists' who believe that reporting constitutes regurgitating spoon-fed 'company line' information or sharing what has been conveniently 'revealed' to them are being dismissed by viewers.

The glamour is reverting back to intellect. The prestige: to being respected for putting yourself on the line to get to the truth. The standup: either to show or explain something or to share frank, accurate information without a whoopee cushion or fabricated drama. The anchor banter and occasional hijinx: not a necessity, but unleashed spontaneity - in a natural and unforced moment.

So a freaky looping pattern: yep.

Cycling from the somberness of Viet Nam to the crazy, sometimes Fellini-like journalistic backlash. Then back around to the shock and tragedy of 9/11...followed by an abandoning or snubbing of some video reporting principles...and an influx of forced cleverness and creativity.

And now: we seem to be on our way back - thankfully - to acknowledging and embracing the real journalists and real journalism. I honestly believe that a well-constructed 1:30 package can pull us in like a good Scorsese movie. And yes - there have been some changes. As long as the reporting is solid we'll forgive the occasional shaky but important shot or compromised lighting or edit challenge.

The salaries: calmed down to offensively lower figures for the majority. But as I shared in my first column: if it’s in your blood, there's no turning back.

Home Base
For all of us who believe we "recognize someone's voice" - the reason for this is that each of us speaks in a unique fluctuation of pitch. It's the rolling incantation of voice and speech sounds that carries our message to a listener's ear. If you picture the five lines on which music is written, somewhere around the middle is a black dot - or note - that signifies your personal "Home Base." This is your own "neutral pitch." It's the place from which you most often start when you speak.

When we begin to speak we essentially have three choices: We can start from Home Base or from a spot that is slightly higher or slightly lower. The reality is that the rise and fall in pitch of our personal speaking voices doesn't travel that far from "Home."

The majority of my clients who need voice work have invariably lost their Home Base in an effort to project their voice, sound urgent, or when they try, artificially, to make their information sound interesting. Whether you're anchoring, tracking or doing a standup, the trick is to figure out or re-discover your Home Base and then roll out your speaking from there. This concept is great for speakers who become incrementally higher without realizing it and for speakers who end up talking from their neck and face in and effort to project and speak with authority.

For many new or semi-seasoned speaking journalists it's important to know your Home Base and to easily and naturally tap into it. The presentation of your journalism is a litany of starting, stopping, starting, stopping - you have infinite opportunities to restart from your base or to lose your way. With a nod to Thomas Wolfe, these folks often find they can't go home again.

Two common ways to find your Home Base:
A) When you're listening to someone and you hear yourself saying "OK" or "got it" out of politeness, the long "A" in OK or the "ah" in "got" should be pretty close to your Home Base. This is because you've phonated without worrying about how you'll sound - you're not carrying a message (i.e. information or a sentence) - and you're essentially making a neutral, non-semantic utterance.

B) If you're tracking or doing a standup try doing a 3-2-1 countdown. Your goal is to hit your Home Base starting from "3" so you now have two opportunities to make an honest mistake. The idea is to feel the 3 - relax into your phonation as you say it - and let your 2 and 1 ever so slightly fall into a 1-1-1 phonation that feels very comfortable, neutral, and sounds pleasant. If you believe your 3 has pretty much nailed your Home Base then the 2 and 1 will serve to reinforce it.

Always remember that it's important to phonate from your stomach. Your countdown can be done in one continuous stomach-pulling-in flow. Or if you're trying to improve your breathing and resonance (trying to take your voice out of your face and neck and more into a torso rumble) try doing your 3-2-1 in a series of 3 stomach pumps in. Bingo! Who knew you'd learn to belly dance as a bonus?

Common Pitfalls
Once you have the feel of the 1 in your countdown you are ready to start speaking. Be careful not to do a stupendous 3-2-1 and then default right back to your old voice as you start speaking! It's a common mistake but if you record your practice you'll hear it.

Remember: the idea is not to flatten your voice but rather to learn to start speaking from the natural, comfortable pitch which is most likely the spot you're in when you're not worrying about how you sound!

Television news brought sitting people, standing people (anchors and reporters) natural sound, sound bites and (hopefully) significant video into our lives. The intention, in part, was to provide stronger multi-media news than newspapers and radio. Many people soon preferred getting their news from a warm-blooded, talking human. I'm sure there are scores of reasons for this, including one of perhaps feeling less spooked by some of the more serious stories.

As for me, I often put on my local news while I'm doing something else in the same room. If I hear something that compels me to look up (ie -watch some video) I'll do so or make a mental note to scroll backwards when I can find my remote.

The other day I was paying bills. A local news station had reached the C Block: Around the World. I found myself thinking, "Hmmm, they must've lost time somewhere, the anchor is really speeding along!" My brain was jogging to keep up.

Then I heard: "Due to increased violence Dutch law enforcement plans to implement serious restrictions on popular marijuana cases". I'm not well-versed on the Dutch legal system, but I had a "huh?" moment and looked up hoping to see video or a still shot, which would help me better understand this one-liner news item.

The anchor had a "poker look" on his face; there was nothing else to see and he was already into the next Around the World story. It struck me that he either misread the word "cafes" as "cases" or perhaps there was a typo in the prompter. Either way I was much sadder for us than I was for the café frequenters.

Either Chris, an anchor I do like, was tearing along and was totally disconnected to what he said or maybe he didn't have prior knowledge of the story and trusted a typo, and/or someone was asleep at the switch and didn't click into his IFB to advise him that he needed to correct the noun. Even worse, and this is my fear, someone in the newsroom caught it and a decision was made not to clarify the erroneous information for the viewers.

As we speak- so does the anchor

If you listen to a random conversation we stutter, we stumble, we correct inadvertently mispronounced sounds and words. Sometimes we stop and clarify or repeat a word, a name, a phrase, all to assure that our listener easily "got" what we said.

As long as an anchor isn't gripped by a tendency to misspeak (and this can come from a multitude of reasons) an occasional flub is completely fine and normal. A tripped-up or misspeaking anchor just needs to do what the rest of us do - correct the word or information in whatever manner suits his/her personality and personal preference and move on.

When things don't go perfectly, or when they go wrong, it is an anchor's aplomb and ease with the medium that serves as a great measure of his/her abilities.

As a good anchor you will comfortably correct yourself. You may couch it as, "that's ___". Depending on the mistake and the nature of the story you may choose to correct it more carefully" "Let me assure you've gotten this correctly, that's ___". If the story is light, sometimes a little look may replace words as you correct what was screwed up."

Frankly, one of my personal frustrations is seeing terrific, professional, comfortably executed catches or corrections and having to tell a client "Geez that was great, you did that so well. I'd love to put that on your demo reel to show management how artfully you handle your job but if it's on your reel they may think you had nothing to show them that doesn't have you misspeaking."

And so these flubs are rarely on reels. I guess there's always the chance that one may occur during an audition and you can show your chops there.

Getting back to the "oral journalism" Amsterdam glitch - the news program returned after commercials for the next block. There was no clarification or correction offered. I checked on it after. It WAS cafes and not cases. Huge difference. I much rather would've preferred to hear "A few minutes ago we shared a story about gang violence in Amsterdam. We'd like to clarify that…"

Now THAT'S good anchoring!

Did you know that the tax code allows you to claim tax deductions for household damage caused by thefts, vandalism, fires, floods, hurricanes and others kinds of casualties? But the law imposes several restrictions.

Relief is available only for uninsured losses. They must be reduced by any settlements you receive, or expect to receive, from your home owner's or renter's insurance. Nor do you get any write-off for the first $100 of each theft or casualty loss.

The major limitation is that total losses generally are allowable only to the extent they exceed ten percent of adjusted gross income, the amount listed on the last line of the first page of the 1040 form.

There are other problems for people with hefty deductions that surpass the ten-percent threshold. IRS sleuths learned long ago that most of them are unable to substantiate their losses because they neglect to keep adequate records. They have to rely on what, at best, are estimates. This is assuming they are even able to recall, for instance, all those valuable and not-so-valuable belongings stored in their closets. So the ritual response of the feds is to throw out or trim unsupported estimates, a strict approach that has been sustained by the courts in countless decisions. Take, for example, a case in which an unsympathetic United States Tax Court emphasized that it "bears heavily" against taxpayers who base their estimates mostly on recollections, not records.

Nevertheless, an understanding IRS wants to ease the burden for people who fall victim to thefts, casualties, or disasters. The agency offers a free guide, Publication 2194, Disaster Losses Kit For Individuals, available at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p2194.pdf. Or you can call a toll-free number, 800-TAX-FORM (829-3676).

(As long as you're making the call, also get Publication 910, Guide to Free Tax Services. It supplies a complete list of IRS booklets, summarizes what they cover, identifies the many materials and services available, and explains how, when, and where to get them. To order current and prior year publications or forms, use the toll-free number.)

Publication 2194 includes a handy workbook with schedules for listing, among other things, clothing, jewelry and a residence's contents on a room-by-room basis. Schedules for rooms and other areas have separate worksheets for the entrance hall, living room, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms, garage, and other sections. Each worksheet lists belongings generally found in a specific area.

As an example, the entrance-hall worksheet lists chairs, clocks, draperies, lamps, mirrors, pictures, rugs, tables, umbrella stands and wall fixtures, with plenty of space to enter additional items. Alongside each property item are seven columns in which to record the following details: the number of items; date acquired; cost; value before the loss; value after the loss; decrease in value; and amount deductible as a loss.

You may never need to calculate deductions for casualty or theft losses, but Publication 2194's workbook will help you inventory household goods and personal property. That list can prove indispensable when, for instance, you want to reconsider the adequacy of your insurance coverage, file insurance claims, plan to move—or even create a household inventory for heirs.

To be sure, it's a disheartening project to list all your possessions, their cost and other information. Still, creating a list in advance is incomparably easier than trying to remember all those details after property is stolen or destroyed. Whether the inventory is a first time task or an update, it's prudent to keep a copy outside your home in a safe deposit box or some other secure location.

More articles by Julian Block can be found on his Web site.

The law allows individuals who work at home to claim home-office deductions only if they pass a series of tests. You must use a portion of your home exclusively and on a regular basis for work in your business. It has to be your principal place of business.

Arranging things to pass the tests lets you transform otherwise nondeductible personal expenditures (a portion of everything from home-insurance premiums to repairs to utility bills to depreciation if you own your house or a percentage of your rent) into deductible business expenses.

Whats "exclusive" use? You must use the entire area - whether a single desk, a room or an entire floor - only for business and nothing else. Use the home office for any personal, family or investment activities, and you forfeit all rights to home-office deductions.

IRS auditors are at ease when scrutinizing a deduction for an office in a room that's closed off from all non-business activities. They remain at ease when the office is just a small part of a room as long as you clearly separate the business portion from the rest - by a partition, perhaps.

Because gray areas abound, IRS examiners set no arbitrary standard for how much you must use the office to pass the regular-use test. They base their decisions on the particular circumstances. Usually, working in the office a couple of hours a day, several days a week proves sufficient; a couple of hours a week probably doesn't pass muster. While auditors allow some leeway, look forward to a disputed deduction if you use an otherwise empty room infrequently for a purpose incidental to your business.

Your endeavor doesn't have to be a full-time business. It can be part time, as when you moonlight from your home as a writer and have a full-time job elsewhere. Examiners dont care that you devote more time to moonlighting than to your job.

Your "principal place of business" means the place where you personally meet clients or customers (phone calls don't count) or the only fixed location where you conduct your business, key administrative or management activities. There can't be another fixed location outside of your home where you conduct such activities for that business. Some IRS-approved examples of administrative or management activities: arranging appointments; billing clients, customers or patients; ordering supplies; maintaining records; forwarding orders; and preparing reports.

There's an additional, even tougher requirement for employees who do office work at their homes. Most employees are unable to satisfy the requirement that they maintain the at-home office for the convenience of their employer's "convenience" meaning that otherwise, their jobs disappear. Employees can't maintain the office for their own convenience - for instance, to complete reports at night or on weekends. Dubious IRS examiners will want to see a confirming letter that says, essentially, "No home office, no job."

For more information, visit houselogic.com. At the site, click "Taxes & Incentives." Next, click "Home Office Tax Deductions: Tips to Get It Right" for a slideshow that pairs attention-getting images with brief explanations of allowable expenses for freelance writers and other individuals operating businesses from their homes.

More articles by Julian Block can be found on his Web site.

This is a chapter excerpt from Julian Block's book, mentioned above. The book is available in print, Kindle and Nook editions. To learn more about this and other books by Julian Block, click here.

It’s more important than ever for writers, photographers and other freelancers to familiarize themselves with steps that can keep their taxes to the legal minimum. To help take year-round advantage of legitimate breaks while not running afoul of the rules, here’s some advice on common tax problems. For guidance in specific areas you should consult a qualified tax professional or contact the Internal Revenue Service.

Question: Last year, a magazine agreed to pay $2,000 for an article, plus reimburse my expenses. I delivered the article along with my bill for $2,700, comprised of the $2,000 fee and $700 for travel, telephone and other expenses incurred in the course of research. The assignment turned out to be a fiasco. I’ll collect zilch because the magazine went kaput; last I heard, the publishers had gone into the witness protection program. Can I take a "bad debt" deduction on Schedule C for that unpaid $2,000 fee?

Answer: You can’t take any deduction for the $2,000. The snag: You’re what’s known as a “cash-basis taxpayer.” That’s the IRS’s designation of individuals (including most of us) who generally don’t have to report payments for articles, books and other income items until the year that they actually receive them and don’t get to deduct their expenses until the year that they pay them. The tax code doesn’t require you to count the $2,000 as reportable income and it doesn’t allow you to deduct an equivalent amount. Only if you were an “accrual basis taxpayer” and had previously counted the $2,000 as reportable income at the time it became due to you, could you deduct it now, because it hasn’t actually arrived and is a lost cause. As for the $700 in unreimbursed expenses, those can be deducted by including them among the expenses you list on Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business).

Question: For the past few years, my writing income has been meager. But this year’s income will soar because of a six-figure book advance. According to a fellow writer, income averaging will lower my tax tab by many thousands of dollars. How do I average my income?

Answer: Your friend’s advice might have been helpful when the Oval Office was occupied by Ronald Reagan. But the rules now on the books provide no break for someone whose income jumps. A top-to-bottom overhaul of the Internal Revenue Code, known officially as the Tax Reform Act of 1986, included a provision that abolished averaging for nearly everybody, though there continues to be a limited exception for farmers. My advice is to focus instead on easy and perfectly legal ways for writers to trim taxes. A standard tactic is to stash some of that advance money into one of those tax-deferred retirement plans for self-employed persons.

Question: I’m an architect and moonlight as a freelance writer. I went to a get-together with some of my fellow writers. There was no speaker; it was more of a social event. While I see it as networking with my professional colleagues, and most of the talk was about work-related issues, writing is only a part-time activity for me. Can I take a business-expense deduction for the cost of getting there? How about my cash contribution to the refreshments for the group?

Answer: It’s immaterial that you’re a part-time freelancer. Your writing endeavors don’t have to be full-time for this kind of event to qualify. You’re entitled to claim the entire cost of round-trip travel between your home and the party’s site. For travel by bus, train or taxi, just keep track of your fares and claim them as business expenses; for auto travel, you can claim actual expenses or a standard mileage allowance. Whether you claim actual expenses or use the mileage allowance, remember to deduct parking fees and bridge, tunnel and turnpike tolls that you pay while you’re on business, too. As for noshing outlays, they fall into the category of meals and entertainment, and are subject to a cap. They’re only 50 percent deductible.

Question: I’m a self-employed writer. I’m represented by two agents, one for my nonfiction and another for my fiction work. Each gets a percentage of my earnings. At tax time, both agents send me 1099 forms. The 1099 forms show what they’ve sent me during the year for advances, royalties received from publishers, and other payments related to my books. But they do different kinds of bookkeeping! One agent’s 1099 lists the full amount she received from the publisher (she does not subtract the commission she withholds before sending the balance to me.) The other lists the "after commission" payment he actually sent to me. How should I report these payments on my return?

Answer: Let consistency be your guide. The amount of income you declare should be consistent with the figures shown on your 1099 forms. Otherwise, the IRS’s ever-vigilant computers might go bananas, with unpleasant consequences to you. When it comes to money you receive through an agent, what you should declare depends on whether the agent submits a 1099 form that shows the total paid by the publisher or the amount minus the agent’s commission. Does the 1099 filed by the agent list the gross amount? Then that’s the figure you should include in totaling your income to come up with your gross amount on Schedule C — and remember to include the agent’s commission, which is deductible on the line for commissions and fees. If the 1099 reports only the net amount received by you, use that figure to calculate gross income. There is no need to report the commission. Either way, you pay tax only on the amopunt you actually received.

Question: I write for several magazines. One magazine’s 1099 form reports not only the fees they paid me during the year in question, but also includes sums that compensated me for sizable out-of-pocket expenses for hotels, meals, air fares, car rentals, telephones and the like. Of course this doesn’t agree with my records; I don’t count those payouts as expenses, since I know that I’m going to get them back — and I don’t count expense checks as income, either; it’s just a wash. Suppose I receive a 1099 form that shows $9,687.53, which actually includes payments of $6,500 for articles and $3,187.53 worth of reimbursement for travel and so forth. It doesn’t make sense that I’d have to include the latter amount in totaling my income for line 1 of Schedule C, since it wasn’t income.

Answer: Contrary to what many freelancers and other self-employed people mistakenly believe, it’s not “just a wash.” This is much like the previous question about payments from agents; again, you should make sure your return reflects the consistency that will keep the IRS computers in a calm, unagitated state. You should include in total gross receipts the full amount shown by the magazine, $9,587.53. Then, as with the agent’s commission, include the $3,187.53, though reimbursed, with your other deductible expenses, since you shouldn’t be paying taxes on it. That way, you avoid an overstatement of net profit on Schedule C and overpayments of self-employment taxes and income taxes.

Question: I came in from Chicago to New York City to attend a writers’ conference. I’m pretty sure that I’m entitled to claim some deductions, but what sorts of expenses can I deduct, and can I deduct them totally?

Answer: You get to deduct 100 percent of what you spend for the attendance fee, tapes of sessions, books on writing and the like, plus travel between your home and New York, and expenditures for hotels. There’s a limitation, though, for meals not covered by the attendance fee, including both what you eat en route and food consumed while you’re in New York: Deduct only 50 percent of those expenditures.

Question: I was accompanied on the trip by my spouse, who isn’t a writer and didn’t attend the conference. Is there any chance that any of my spouse’s expenses qualify as deductible?

Answer: There’s no deduction whatever for the portion of the outlays attributable to your spouse’s travel, meals and lodging — with a limited exception, one that will allow relatively few freelancers to salvage deductions for a mate’s travel expenses. To qualify for the exception, these three requirements must be met: (1) the spouse (or dependent, or any other individual) accompanying you on business travel is a bona fide employee of the outfit that pays for the trip (in this case, your freelance business); (2) the spouse undertakes the travel for a bona fide business reason; and (3) the spouse is otherwise entitled to deduct the expenses.

TIP: Take heart. Some often-overlooked tax relief remains available for lodging costs even when your spouse, significant squeeze or someone else tags along only for fun. You’re entitled to a deduction for lodging based on the single-rate cost of similar accommodations for you — not half the double rate you actually paid for the two of you.

EXAMPLE: Judy, a photographer, goes by car to New York for a business conference. She’s accompanied by her husband, Frank, who’s retired. They stay at a Manhattan hotel where rooms go for $200 for a double and $180 for a single. Besides a deduction for the total cost of driving to and from New York (Judy obviously incurs the same driving expenses whether Frank accompanies her or not), she should claim a per-day deduction for their hotel room of the entire single rate of $180, rather than half the double rate, or $100. To help safeguard her deduction in case the IRS questions it, she should remember to have the hotel bill note the single rate, or be sure to get hold of a rate sheet. Some of Frank’s meals might qualify as deductible business meals. An example: At the conference, Judy dines with a book publisher and the publisher’s spouse. Because of the presence of the publisher’s spouse, Frank attends on a business basis.

Question: I’ll be paid for a talk that I’ll give at a writers’ conference. Is a charitable-contribution deduction available to a speaker who declines an honorarium and asks that the money be donated to a charity he or she picks?

Answer: Yes. But the speaker still has to declare the honorarium as income. Note that you derive no benefit from a donation deduction if you pass up itemizing on Schedule A of Form 1040 for contributions, home-mortgage interest, state and local real estate and income taxes and the like because it’s more advantageous to use the standard deduction. The standard deduction is a flat amount based mostly on filing status and age that’s adjusted annually to reflect inflation. If you anticipate that you’re going to claim the standard deduction, decline the honorarium before you become entitled to it and are required to declare it. Assign the payment to your favorite philanthropy.

CAUTION: The IRS says that a writer who donates unsolicited property that’s received “for free,” such as books received from a publisher for review, must declare the value of the books as income if he or she donates them to charity.

Question: A university asked to reprint one of my magazine articles in its alumni publication. I gave permission without asking for any payment. Since this is an educational institution, can I take a charitable contribution deduction equal to the fee I would have asked of a commercial publisher? Do I need a letter from the school? If so, what should it say?

Answer: Sorry, a letter won’t help. You’re not allowed any deduction.

Question: I’ve written several best-selling books on World War II. I plan to donate papers, including original manuscripts and historic correspondence with famous persons, to a university. Should I consult a tax expert on how to calculate the value of my charitable contribution?

Answer: Don’t bother, unless you write your manuscripts on legal tender. For your kind of property, a special restriction applies. In tax jargon, it’s “ordinary-income property,” meaning property that, if sold by you, would result in ordinary income or short-term capital gain, rather than long-term capital gain. The measure of your allowable deduction is your cost for the property. Because your cost basis for the property is zero, you can claim no deduction.

Question: When I’m not writing, I squeeze in time for my hobby of painting. I donated one of my paintings to a church bazaar, where it sold for $100. Can I deduct that as a contribution?

Answer: No. Your deduction is limited to your unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses for materials — the canvas, paints and brushes. The entire $100 is deductible only if you sell the painting yourself and donate the proceeds to the church. But this maneuver doesn’t help, because the bigger deduction is completely offset by an increase in your reportable income of $100.

Question: Who’s right? I have office furniture and machines that I no longer use in my business as a freelance writer. Over the years, I claimed depreciation deductions on Schedule C that have reduced my tax basis in the equipment to zero. My tax adviser says that I can donate these items to a charitable organization and take a contribution deduction for their current market value. However, my mother-in-law insists that I’m not entitled to any deduction because I fully depreciated them.

Answer: She’s right on the money. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed any deduction. As the equipment’s basis is zero, there’s nothing of value for you to write off as a deduction.

Question: Can I deduct money spent for magazines purchased at a newsstand for pre-query research? These aren’t magazines I’m now writing for but magazines I hope to write for. And if I can, where on Form 1040 do I list those deductions?

Answer: The law allows you to deduct business-related publications, and these magazines are in that category. Like your other writing expenses, you claim them on Schedule C or on Schedule CZ, the shorter, one-page form that can be used by a business owner when expenses are below $5,000, a loss isn’t shown and certain other requirements are met.

Question: I’ve been told to report my book and photo royalties not as income on Schedule C, but as royalties on Schedule E. The word is that by doing so, I can skip paying the 15.3 self-employment tax, which consists of 2.9 percent Medicare and 12.4 percent Social Secu­rity. True?

Answer: IRS revenue agents and office auditors look unkindly on writers, photographers, artists and other self-employeds who try to escape self-employment taxes. Perhaps we have a case of semantics here. Yes, the word “royalties” is used on Schedule E, and yes, the IRS defines royalties as “payments for intangible properties” — for example, books and artistic works, which would include photos. But the IRS is adamant that you report royalties for your creative efforts on Schedule C, making that income subject to self-employment tax. Schedule E is for reporting royalties received by other people — for example, those who purchase or inherit copyrights on books, photos and other material that they didn’t create. Limit your use of Schedule E for reporting royalties to listing those received from coal, oil or gas sites.

CAUTION: You’re playing the “audit lottery” if you report book and photo sales on Schedule E. True, your ploy might never be discovered, but should you be, expect to be hit with a hefty bill for back taxes, interest, and penalties.

More articles by Julian Block can be found on his Web site.

Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland commented that "The legal right of a taxpayer to decrease his taxes or to altogether avoid them by means which the law permits cannot be doubted."

Even IRS apparatchiks agree with Justice Sutherland's view that writers and other freelancers are entitled to use every legal means available to reduce taxes. Still, some kinds of perfectly legal deductions bother IRS auditors. They learned long ago that lots of writers willingly succumb to temptations and embellish business write-offs.

I'm not saying you should allow audit angst to scare you out of taking legitimate deductions. Claim all of the expenses you qualify for and can substantiate.

But I'm saying you should keep sufficient backup information and documentation in your files, in case the IRS asks questions later on. Here are some of the items that could agitate IRS computers.

Office-at-home deductions:
The IRS targets them year after year. In fact, an aggrieved agency has gone to court repeatedly, winning support for its tough stand in rejecting deductions for spaces supposedly set aside as home offices.

Whether you're sorting out home-office complexities for the first time or are an old hand at it, don't overreach. You qualify only if you use a portion of your home exclusively and regularly for your business. Generally, this is a separate room.

The IRS concedes that the office can be part of a room. But the burden is on you to establish that the separation is clear—by a partition, perhaps—and that no personal activities take place within the business area. Understandably, IRS examiners look closely at deductions for offices housed in studio apartments.

The IRS says you flunk the exclusive test when, for example, the office is where you stash your cat's litter box or your children do their homework or play games on personal computers. But the agency doesn't mind when you have personal conversations on office phones or computers. And it doesn't insist that you rush outside whenever family members need to ask questions or Fluffy craves some Meow Mix.

The IRS does require the office to be your "principal place of business." That means the place where you regularly meet clients or customers or conduct your business' key administrative or management activities, provided there's no other fixed location where you conduct such activities for that business.

There's no requirement that your endeavor has to be a full-time business. It can be part time, as when you have a full-time job elsewhere and moonlight from your home office as a writer.

Business driving:
Writers get to claim deductions for all kinds of trips—from driving to meet clients, to attending meetings and conferences, to just picking up office supplies. The IRS doesn't allow deductions for commuting, as when you drive from your home to your office (or another regular place of business) and back again to your home. Calling clients while driving doesn't transform car trips from commuting to business.

More favorable rules apply when an office within your home qualifies for the home-office deduction. Nondeductible commuting between home and other work locations morphs into deductible business driving.

You have two options for deducting car operating costs. Use either the actual cost or the standard mileage method. The actual cost method allows you to deduct all of the vehicle's operating costs. The standard mileage allowance uses a flat rate. For 2010, it's 50 cents per mile. For 2011, it's 51 cents. Whichever method you select, also claim parking fees and bridge or highway tolls.

Make sure to claim all of your allowable expenses when you drive to writers' conferences or other gatherings and are accompanied by a spouse, significant squeeze or some other person who tags along only for fun. Deduct the total cost of driving. You incur the same driving expenses whether your spouse accompanies you or not. Deduct lodging based on the single-rate cost of similar accommodations for you — not half the double rate you actually paid for the two of you. To help corroborate your write-off, have the hotel bill note the single rate or ask for a rate sheet.

IRS auditors often question car expenses. They accept standard-rate deductions only when there are adequate records substantiating the miles driven. To be on the safe side, keep glove compartment diaries or other records that note why and how far you went and what you shelled out for parking and tolls. Diary entries are more persuasive when made close to when the trips occur, not when filing deadlines loom. Stay within the speed limits. IRS regulations prohibit deductions for traffic tickets.

First-year expensing:
There are two ways for writers to write off of their outlays for purchases of equipment—for instance, computers and file cabinets. One is the "standard" route—recovering the cost through depreciation deductions over a period of years. Or they can opt for the frequently-overlooked tactic of "expensing" and deduct a specified amount of equipment in the year of purchase.

Regarding "expensing," suppose a writer's equipment purchases include $10,000 for cameras, computers, copiers, tape recorders and the like. Instead of the purchases being depreciated over five years, they can be immediately expensed. A $10,000 first-year deduction lowers taxes by $3,000 for an individual in a top federal and state bracket of 30 percent.

A complex rule prohibits a first-year deduction from exceeding the net (receipts minus expenses) taxable income from writing, calculated before the first-year deduction—meaning a writer can't use a first-year deduction to create a loss that offsets income from sources other than writing.

Correcting past flubs:
Justice Sutherland's pro-taxpayer advice also should be heeded by writers who filed returns overlooking or understating write-offs for, say, their travel expenses. An accommodating IRS makes it relatively easy to correct mistakes without the need to completely redo the returns or go through any complicated red tape.

Naturally, the first step in seeking a refund from the IRS is to file a form — in this case, Form 1040X (Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return). Go to irs.gov for a 1040X and accompanying instructions on how to explain the reasons for the changes and how to compute refunds or balances due.

While you're at the IRS site, download any forms or schedules for the year you're amending. Also get Publication 556, Examination of Returns, Appeal Rights, and Claims for Refund, which has helpful information not contained in the instructions. Click on "Forms and Publications;" then click on "Previous Years."

Let's say you're sending a 1040X for 2008 and claiming additional deductions on Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business) for business travel to writers' conferences. Or maybe you now realize you should've itemized deductions on Schedule A instead of taking the standard deduction. Along with the 1040X, submit corrected 2008 versions of Schedules A, C and SE (Self-Employment Tax).

Why is it important for you to revise Schedule SE? Claiming additional expenses doesn't just reduce the amount you show as profit on Schedule C, thereby reducing the amount of your income subject to income taxes. It also reduces the amount of your income subject to self-employment taxes, as calculated on Schedule SE. Many writers get nicked more for self-employment taxes than for income taxes.

More articles by Julian Block can be found on his Web site.