For an Impairment Related Work Expense deduction to be allowable: The expense must be related to an impairment treated by a healthcare provider, and The expense must help the self-employed person work, and The expense must be paid by the self-employed person, not reimbursed by another source, and The expense must take place within the month worked, and The expense must be reasonable Sorry, a bar tab isn’t part of the tax write-off, so maybe our farmer, minister and street vendor have something else to gripe about. Come to think of it, the bar owner might join in! Sidebar: for more information on this complicated topic See list of income-related work expenses IRWEs at: For some details specific to the farming community including tax filing information useful to anyone self-employed who has a disability, see: For an insightful blog “Five ways to keep your home-based business running smoothly” from a disability perspective, see: Wheeling, Dealing and Getting from Here to There By Elizabeth L. Sammons BSVI Canton counselor Berna King knows what it’s like to be creative in getting around. “When I was growing up, we had some
Amish friends a few miles away. I had a horse at the time. They did trimming the hooves and shoeing my horse in exchange for my parents driving them to the grocery store every two weeks,” she recalls. Thus began Berna’s knowledge of ‘Yoder Toters.’ Yoder is one of the most common Amish last names, thus symbolic of the community. And, “Yoders” need “toters” like Berna’s parents to go out of buggy range for shopping, to the doctor or to work. (The reason most Amish do not own transportation stems from their fear that such mobility would create temptations to move away from their close-knit community.) Photo Caption: ‘Yoder toters,’ used by the Amish community, can also be utilized by individuals with disabilities. DDD’s Susann Deatherage smiles over this title of ‘Yoder Toter.’ “It’s a jokey kind of thing,” she says, not a derogatory term, used both for a vehicle and a driver. When she moved to Knox County in 1997, she didn’t anticipate driving for her Amish neighbors, as needed. “It’s a ministry for me,” she explains.
Counselors like Berna have explored using alternate transportation such as ‘Yoder toters’ for consumers they serve. Additionally, since transportation is an ongoing demand in outlying communities, consumers able to drive safely sometimes take interest in providing the service. “I encourage people to advertise at churches or with community organizations, not that that’s any guarantee,” Berna says. For those seeking private personal transportation, Berna advises passengers to draw up some sort of agreement signed by both parties stipulating times, rates, and longevity. “I encourage people to get receipts when they pay a driver, partly because they can write it off,” she adds. In Amish counties, posting on Facebook or using an app to locate a driver isn’t an option. “People in our area can’t have phones, so they would leave a phone in our barn, and they’d pay for that, and they’re free to go in there and call,” Susann explains about the business Amish neighbors’ conduct, including hunting for drivers. “A list of people is something they just create. They get word of mouth of people that like to drive.”