(MONEY Magazine) – Q. First Commodity Corp. of Boston persuaded me to invest $40,500 in sugar futures last February by telling me that I would double my money. So far I am out $16,500. The company was expelled from the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange in September for allegedly using misleading and fraudulent sales practices. Is there any way I can get my money back? PAUL T. WORTHINGTON Broomall, Pa. A. You should first withdraw what remains of your investment and close your account. You then have a choice of three actions. The easiest is to apply for arbitration to the National Futures Association (200 W. Madison, Suite 1600, Chicago, Ill. 60606). But you might do better by filing a complaint with the Reparations Forum of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (2033 K St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20581), a federal regulatory agency, advises Robert Dyer, an Orlando, Fla. lawyer who specializes in commodities litigation. If your complaint is upheld, a judge at the CFTC will order First Commodity to return your money. The CFTC has itself charged the company with sales misrepresentation. First Commodity has denied the charges. If you hope to recover more than you have lost, ask a lawyer whether you have grounds to sue for compensatory and punitive damages and recovery of legal fees, which alone could exceed $25,000. Q. A woman I know lived for 14 years in a house she didn't own. She says she paid the property taxes all those years and when the owner tried to get the house back, she claimed squatter's rights and won ownership. Could this be true? If it is, how long do you have to live in a house to claim squatter's rights? PATRICIA ANN DEVITA Medford, N.Y. A. The period varies from state to state. In New York you have to prove you have occupied the property without the owner's consent for 10 years. To make a court claim of ownership, squatters also must show that they have treated the property as though it were their own -- for instance, by making improvements. Paying the back taxes on the property may also help build a case for ''adverse possession,'' the legal term for squatter's rights. Until the required number of years have passed, a squatter has no rights to the property, and the owner may take legal action to evict him at any time. Q. Several years ago, as a schoolteacher, I started a tax-deferred annuity program with untaxed deductions from my salary. When I retired, I rolled over the assets into a single-premium tax-deferred annuity. Thus I have paid no income tax on any of the funds. I am now 74 years old and in a financial position to give the entire annuity to charity. Would that help me avoid paying taxes on what is a rather substantial sum? LLOYD M. PARKS Tucson A. Yes, depending on how you make the gift. It would certainly be deductible if you donated the annuity outright. But you would have to pay tax on the entire value of the annuity if the charity cashed it in. Of course, you could make the donation with the understanding that the annuity is not to be cashed in before your death. That would end any income tax obligation. But once you transferred ownership of the annuity, such an understanding could not be enforced. A better approach would be to cash in the annuity yourself and immediately donate the money. You could deduct the gift up to a limit of 50% of your adjusted gross income. (The same limit would apply if you donated the uncashed annuity.) Any amount not deductible would be taxed, but you could donate it and take the deduction the following year. Q. Ten years ago we sold our house in Virginia to a couple for $425,000, giving us a $267,862 profit. We financed the sale plus the commission for them by taking back mortgages on the house totaling $450,000. A few years later the couple sold the house and skipped town, leaving $150,000 of the debt unpaid. In their absence, we got a default judgment against them for $211,923 -- the unpaid principal and interest, plus legal fees. How can we find the couple, and if we can't, can we take a loss on our tax return? DR. AND MRS. CHARLES KECK Chester, Vt. A. You can hire a private investigator to chase down the deadbeats. Depending on how long the job took, he might charge from $500 to $1,200. Ralph Thomas, director of the National Association of Investigative Specialists, says detectives have a 75% to 80% success rate in finding people in the U.S. But if that fails or if the couple can't pay the judgment, you can claim the unpaid balance, excluding interest, as a bad-debt loss. Q. I have a copy of the first issue of Life magazine, 50 years old this month. How much is it worth, and how should I go about selling it? KEN COLEMAN Woodstock, Conn. A. Vol. 1, No. 1 of Life, dated Nov. 23, 1936, created such a stir that lots of people tucked away their copies. Of the 466,000 magazines printed, back- issue dealers estimate that thousands still exist. Therefore, even copies in excellent condition have been selling for about $100, according to Henry Greenbaum of Jay Bee Magazines, a back-issues store in New York City. But a dealer is likely to pay you only $75. To get a better price, try placing an ad, at 10 cents a word, in Paper Collector's Marketplace magazine (700 E. State St., Iola, Wis. 54990). Q. I want to cash in CDs worth $180,000 now in my Individual Retirement Account and use the money to refinance a loan that my wife holds on a commercial building in Berkeley, Calif. She would pay 12% interest on the mortgage in monthly payments directly into my IRA. But Merrill Lynch, which has my account, won't handle this mortgage arrangement for me. Is there anyone who will? WILLIAM A. ROBERTS Oakland, Calif. A. No. Internal Revenue Service rules prohibit using transactions with a spouse or relative as investments for any tax-sheltered retirement account. Q. I work 40 hours a week as a radiology technologist at a rural hospital. In addition, my job requires me to be on call and able to get to the hospital within 15 minutes several nights a week. Can I claim a tax deduction for mileage or a percentage of car maintenance expenses for trips I have to make after hours? P. HOPE SNELLER Jackson, Wyo. A. No. Even though your on-call trips extend beyond your normal workday, the IRS considers them commuting expenses, which are never deductible. Q. When Petro-Lewis Oil & Gas Income Program partnerships were liquidated in 1984, the company exchanged my partnership shares for units of a master limited partnership, American Royalty Trust. The units have been trading on the American Stock Exchange for only 9% of my original investment. Do I have to sell them to take a tax loss?

CHRIS JAMES Lake Oswego, Ore. A. Yes, you do.