Q: Does Getting A Grant Have To Be A Lot of Paperwork?
A: A lot of people say, “Hey,
Lesko — isn’t it a lot of paperwork
to get money from the government or other places?” And
the answer is yes, it could be. But who cares?
Who cares if it takes you a night to fill out the
paperwork, or a week, two weeks, a month, or if
it is one page or 1,000 pages? Where else are you
going to get $1,000 to do something, or $100,000— or
a quarter of a million dollars?
What about the last week, the last month? What
did you do that month? So many people say it
makes them stop. It becomes an insurmountable
hurdle. It is an excuse not to do something because
they have to fill out some 20-page form. And
that’s not always true. There is a program,
if you want to start a business that only has
two pages to fill out, and you get $150,000.
So, the paperwork should not stop you. And you
can fill out a ONE-PAGE APPLICAION and get:
- A $20,000 grant to buy a home
- A $3,000 grant to act as a down payment on
a home
- A $200 a month grant to pay for your rent,
or
- $2,000 worth of prescription drugs.
Sure, some of the complicated grant proposals
may take 20 or 30 pages, and it could take you
a couple of weeks to complete. But again, if
you are getting $100,000 or a quarter of a million
dollars to work on your invention, that is worth
the effort. You have to do it. Remember, with
every hurdle in life, you have to figure out
a way over it, around it or through it. If you
do not, you are out of the game, and you should
not have started the game in the beginning.
Q: Is Grant Money Taxable?
A: The answer to this is the same
answer to any good question, “It depends”.
Some grants are taxable and some are not. If you
get a grant to start a business, I would assume
you would have to treat that as taxable income
but you would probably not pay any taxes on it
because you would use the money to buy business
deductible items like computers, office space,
advertising etc. Grants and scholarships in excess
of tuition, fees, books, supplies, and equipment
are considered taxable income. Grants given to
veterans not taxable. A lot of grants given out
to pay your energy bills or help pay your mortgage
are not taxable. See www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p525.pdf
Q: Do I Have To Hire A Grant Writer?
A: I was sitting in a Starbucks
working the other day and a person who recognized
me came up and said she was looking for a grant
to start a business and asked if she should hire
a grant writer to help him. My immediate reaction
was NO...
I asked her why in the world was she thinking
of hiring a grant writer when she doesn’t
even know yet where to go to get a grant or what
the grant application looks like. It's putting
the cart before the horse and a waste of time.
It’s like getting a prom dress before you
are even asked to the prom.
The reality is that you may or may not need
a grant writer. So why waste time finding one
if you may never need one? What you have to concentrate
on is finding a place that may give you a grant.
Once you find that you can worry about everything
else.
It’s easy to get side-tracked into spending
time on things that seem relevant but aren’t.
And all this does is postpone the problem. And
the problem is finding out WHERE to apply for
the money. Don’t you dare spend any time
figuring out if you need more help once you find
the money, or even how you may spend the money.
All those questions are irrelevant is you can’t
find the money. Spend every ounce of your energy
finding the place where you are going to apply
for the money. The rest will fall into place.
By the way, if you have trouble filling out
an application for money, don’t hire a
consultant. Go to the office that is handing
out the money. They are obligated to help you
fill out your application. They are in the best
position to know what should be on the application
because they are the ones giving you the money.
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