1. 1 year in MK started to suck my soul and confidence away because I wasn’t getting anywhere! The ONLY reason people encourage an actual 1 year is because product repurchase ends in that window. Boy, did we learn to be manipulative!

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   • One year from when you purchase, right? Even if they repurchase during that year? The year doesn’t start over from when they can return?

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     • Orders are typically the largest and most costly with the initial one, so there lies the “1 year” motivation. In actuality, anything purchased from MK within 365 days is eligible for repurchase, no matter the amount. Commissions are dedicated over the next couple of months after the inventory is received by MK.

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       • That should say deducted, not dedicated.

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         • I know what you meant. ?

   • I felt the same way and had to get out. I felt so much better when I returned my inventory.

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2. A recruit’s freshly-signed Consultant Agreement and qualifying ($600 or more) inventory order are required in order for cars and promotions to happen, period.

   This is the indication that it’s ALL ABOUT recruiting. Only recruiting is rewarded.

   If they wanted to encourage great salespeople, they would reward sales with cars and bonuses.

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3. I think because of getting educated on PinkTruth, every time I see or hear “I could use your help” I get angry. I think, your decisions, life, predicaments, are not my problems to solve for you. If someone were to say that to my face, I would respond cool ok, I will help you if you pay my cell phone bill how about that? You would really be helping me out. Also, I get angry hearing someone say they know what women want. Stop lumping us into some bucket for your narrative. You have NO idea what I want! It certainly is not what you have stated that is for sure.

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4. Hey everybody…Have a wonderful holiday season, however you celebrate it, and thank you for participating in what tends to be pretty vulnerable exposure, just to warn others and clear your own side of the balance sheet. Have a Truly Happy New Year.

5. Tracy,
   Please see the comment(s) I left for you at Seq website. ?

   • Mommygyver is a complete clown! 🙂

     • MG takes herself way too serious(ly).

6. I’m not a tax expert, but i hear you can only deduct so much for a home business office.. oh and you have to make money to be able to deduct..<- they forget about that small problem.

   • Not quite. Go to the IRS website and search for the Hobby Loss rule. In short, for IRS purposes you can’t declare Schedule C losses more than two years out of every five. If you try to claim losses in the third year the IRS can declare your business a Hobby, which prevents you from making any deduction for Home Business losses.

     But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that your Mary Kay tax “savings” will always be a fraction of what you spent/lost. Here’s why:

     Say you’re in the 15% income tax bracket, like a large portion of Americans. For every additional $100 you earn after expenses you pay $15 more in taxes. Plus, since Mary Kay is a home based business you also have to pay about $15 in self-employment tax. You keep about $70.

     BUT, for every $100 you lose you only reduce your income tax bill by $15. You won’t pay self-employment tax when you take a loss but that doesn’t matter. The other $85 is gone forever… into Mary Kay’s pocket. Bye-bye.

     Mary Kay’s big big spin on taxes is about how much your tax “savings” will be. RED FLAG! You don’t reduce your tax bill unless you’re LOSING money.

     And as for the Home Office bit. RED FLAG WARNING! The IRS gets very touchy about Home Office. If you use the space for ANY other reason your Home Office deduction gets blown up. Case in point (really happened): This person had a one-bathroom house, with a large hallway space leading to the bathroom. In the hallway the person set up a desk, computer, phone, etc., kept excellent records, and claimed a Home Office deduction. The IRS discovered the bathroom existed and DENIED the Home Office deduction, because the “office” space had another use – the family had to walk through the “office” to get to the bathroom!

     Mary Kay. The Christmas present no one wants.

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     • That’s a lot to take in.

       Let me ask you this, let’s say a consultant purchased $15,000 in products and made $25,000 (including commissions from recruiting) how much tax would she owe? Roughly.

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       • @Shay – A lot of assumptions are needed. So let me see if I can give you a few.
         1) All $15,000 of inventory was sold/given away (cost of goods sold can be deducted, cost of goods not sold gets carried over until they are sold), so you have a gross profit of $10,000.
         2) No other business expenses (as has been documented numerous times on PinkTruth, this is completely unrealistic).
         3) Husband or self has another job so any profit is taxed at highest marginal federal tax rate.

         With these three assumptions, you are going to have to pay self employment tax of 15%, or $1500. So, now there is $8500 left. Federal tax at 25% marginal rate (assumes other salary is equal to $75K-200K is going to be 10,000 *.92 (funky self employment tax math)*.25 = $2,300. So now you have $6,200 take home. Add in state taxes of 5% and knock another $500 for a real take home of $5,700.

         If you assume business expenses of $5,000, then you can halve all of the numbers above. Being in the 10% tax bracket will cut your federal tax by around $1500, but if you are in the 39% bracket then your federal taxes will go up by $1300.

       • Shay,

         To address your question, it’s not possible for someone who buys $15,000 of MK products to make $25,000. Not in the real world.

         Just to begin with, it’s not possible to sell that $15,000 wholesale ($30,000 retail) in one year. You’d have to sell $577 a week, every week, for 52 weeks. That. Just. Never. Happens. For. Anyone.

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         • i sell $6,000 a month on instagram for my mlm (not mary kay. i left mary kay for current business. you couldn’t pay me to go back to mary kay. literally.) my business expenses are just my products that i use on myself (i don’t do parties or in person events. i work only off instagram. and for anyone reading this, don’t think you can just hop on instagram and start selling six grand a month every month immediatly. it has taken me a year to get where i am, and the first six months i was only selling $3,000 a month, which i hustled like you would not believe. endlessly. now my sales funnel has gained momentum so things are better but that doesn’t mean i just sit back and let sales roll in. i hustle.) anyway i say all of that to say that anyone who tries to give any sort of tax advice or tax suggestions, is someone you should run far, far away from. if someone is using tax benefits as a reason for why you should join their mlm, run. also, don’t ask internet strangers their advice on your taxes. first off, you could easily find out the answer to your question yourself with about 2 minutes of research, and second off, i suggest you ask a qualified accountant. lastly, mlm is not for everyone. but there’s a lot of ladies on this blog that tried mary kay, and quit, but obviously they tried for some reason. some just want a hobby, some want some spending cash. i will say its important to find a company that fits YOU. however, with instagram and the internet, you’re not limited to mlm to make extra money these days. you can literally sell anything on instagram. anything. millions of dollars of products are purchased from IG. blogging/paid partnerships are pretty saturated now (i.e. new darlings and the like) but my suggestion is find your niche, find your product, and market it on instagram. you can even just set it up thru an etsy page. but you can’t give up, its gonna take time. instagram/youtube are your best bets. hopefully that helps someone here reading. lastly, anyone who is reading this if you’re thinking of doing mary kay, please make sure you actually like the products, and please make sure your recruiter is not an asshole. oh and make sure you know the social media guidelines. you’re not gonna be able to hustle on insta with mary kay like i do with my company. we are also allowed to sell out of salons etc. you can’t do that with mary kay. educate yourself and check yourself before you wreck yourself. #imout

           • Nomorepinkchampagne:

             Schedule C or it’s not happening.

             SALES and NETPROFIT are two completely different concepts. To begin with, you DO have expenses in addition to the products you keep for yourself. The stuff you sell didn’t come out of thin air. The stuff you sell cost money. Even if you’re selling old stuff that came out of your Grandma’s garage, it cost someone money.

             You also have costs for the computer, your internet service, electricity, shipping, self-employment tax, your accounting software (you are using accounting software like a serious business owner does, right?)…

             By the way, Tracy, the owner of this website, is a licensed and practicing CPA and fraud investigator. A very good one. And so am I. So let’s have no more of your “qualified accountant” slurs.

7. I know what this woman wants:
   For all you to have a great and safe holiday!

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8. As soon as I saw 50% off…I was annoyed…

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