How payments have worked the last year or two ...

The payment goal is 30-60 days, although ad revenue drops off in the spring and summer and contributor payments can lag.

Winter is when ad revenue peaks and we can start getting caught up, with the goal to get back to 30-60 days by the next summer. Right now we've been paying two issues per month and getting caught up again.

However, revenue has dropped significantly with the global pandemic and our plans to get caught up this spring are now unlikely to happen.

So here's what we're implementing as to payment strategy until we get through the pandemic.

1. Let us know if you have been put out of work by this pandemic and we will move you to the top of the payment list.

2. If you can afford to get a reduced payment, let us know and that will really help right now.

3. Be patient with us, it is going to take us longer than usual to get caught up with revenue so uncertain right now.

4. If you're still okay financially, buy something from us you've been thinking about getting but have been sitting on the fence about. That will help us pay contributors, which is our single largest operational expense.

Finally, I have emailed all authors to let them know what's going on. If anyone needs to contact us directly and they feel they're not getting through, please call my personal cell: 503-984-0134

I am currently working on the April issue and was planning to talk about some of this in the April issue editorial. I wish it was April fools, but it's not. One of our staff members just lost his 50-something son to Covid-19 and one of my every-so-often Siskiyou Line ops crew members is in ICU on a ventilator.

In order to help MRH get through this, we also will need to lay off some staff until things come back to normal. Healthwise, we're all doing fine otherwise, and trying to stay safe.

I'm still hoping for the best, but I'm also trying to be realistic here.

And the payment due to

Please call me

We have some authors we have been trying to respond to and our response is not making it back. What happens is our response email is going to their spam and when I call their phone (assuming they gave me one), I go to voice mail. I just hope they're okay ...

Text sent to your cell

Text sent to your cell

MRH: Roger, got it. Been talking with him and got his W-9 via email on March 15. He's in the Nov issue and we have been working on Nov/Dec contributor payments as planned when this pandemic hit and income tanked. We've had to scramble here to deal with everything.

He takes Paypal so payment sent with an apology for being so distracted due to everything hitting the fan in the last two weeks.

Thank you, the issue has been

Just a thought.

Joe, for those strapped for money, would you consider offering payment in product.

Say free issues of Running Extra or month of Train Masters TV or other MRH Product?

Unfortunately ...

First, if they need money, free product helps us, not them.

Second, we used to do just what you say, pay using some free product now and then. We got audited by the IRS and they had a fit when they saw we “paid” people in product sometimes. They told us that’s not allowed and we got dinged a couple thousand in extra taxes for doing that.

So no, we can’t do that. The IRS considers it a form of tax evasion. “Free” product needs to be free samples, not a form of compensation.

Ah, American vs Canadian laws...

Ah, American vs Canadian laws...

Payment

How it works

What they're supposed to do if they're in the USA (and you are in the USA) is record the dollar value of the products and send the IRS a 1099-R with your name on it at the end of the year listing that as compensation in dollars and then YOU are supposed to pay taxes on that "free" product that was intended as compensation.

If they don't do that and they get audited, the IRS will ding them big time for the taxes they circumvented.