Genie:
When you play in schools, there's a lot of competition not just from other musicians but from animal acts, magicians, laser light shows, impersonators and a million other kinds of acts. Musicians usually get $200-$300 for an assembly, and a little less for successive assemblies on the same day. Total compensation for a day can be $200 to as much as $700.
We have been very successful by charging a fixed price for the entire day. We let the school schedule the day (within limits) and they can have as much as they want. We offer assembly programs, classroom programs, hands-on programs and family concerts. We charge anywhere from $435 to as much as $640 for a day, depending on how much crap we have to go through to get the gig and to get paid. We used to do 80 to 100 schools a year. You do the math. We hit the road for two or three weeks and then we're home for one to two weeks.
On the subject of income tax, the IRS allows us to get away with murder. For example, we travel in a motorhome and get to deduct per diem of about $40 per day that we sleep in it. Almost everything we do is deductible including the cost of the new computer on which we are posting this message. We can deduct mileage, repairs to our RV, phone and postage, office expenses, laundry, new equipment and maintenance, performing clothes, CDs, admission to music camps and festivals and countless other things. We even wrote off a trip to Ireland and one to England on the grounds that we spent a lot of time in pubs listening to music. These are commonly referred to as research trips and can be to nearly anywhere. As a result, we payed very little in income taxes even including the fact that, as self-employed, we had to pay twice the Social Security tax of someone who works for a company.
You're right about only playing the school once a year. But, since we were in it for the long haul, we kept very good records and knew when to contact each school. Some had us every year (and still do), some every two years, some every three years and some only one time. Like we said, it's a lot of work but the performing is usually very rewarding. And we're creating future mudcatters.
Bev and Jerry