The Mileage Tax Deduction Can Save You a Lot of Money
How often are you driving for work, as a volunteer or perhaps even moving? Would you say that nearly all of your driving is done for one of these reasons? If not, consider, the times you leave the office for business reasons, or if you work from home, leave and return home for business reasons. What about those trips you take if you haul the kids’ baseball team somewhere – or help out at your church?
All of these miles that you drive are deductible for tax purposes. As of July 1, 2008, the standard rate is also increased to $0.585 per mile ($0.19 for volunteer and moving miles). The IRS does require logs of miles to be kept for your records – and in case of an audit. You may find that by keeping logs up-to-date, at the end of the year you will have significantly more miles accounted for deduction purposes than if you are more lax in your record keeping.
The cost of driving a vehicle has skyrocketed in the past few years. Gasoline costs alone carve into business and household budgets in ways you could not have expected in the past. The driving you do to earn a living is a significant cost and Congress has recognized the importance of this deduction as a vital means for people to continue to pursue their incomes.
The tax code requires only that expenses are ordinary and necessary. It is not required that you show that the specific reasons for the expense are also ordinary and necessary – only that the expenses are both. So, for example, if you work from home and will be needing new paper for your printer in the near future, but decide to pick it up while you are out grocery shopping, both the expense for the paper itself, and driving to where you purchase it are deductible – wow!
Since the mileage expense to drive to the office supply store is ordinary and necessary, the mileage is deductible – in spite of the personal purchases you made while shopping. You have just converted an otherwise non-deductible trip to the store into a fully deductible business trip. There are many other opportunities available to you that you may not have thought about to take advantage of this deduction.
The mileage tax deduction, like many others deductions, can be calculated for free at TurboTax Online. The only time you are asked to pay for the service is if you decide to print or efile. Or, if you still have questions, visit Elusen Tax Advisors! Elusen has years of experience planning and advising clients on their tax needs, and helping fend off the IRS however necessary.
I’ve been included in taxes for longer then I care to acknowledge, both on the individual side (all my working life history!!) and from a legal point of view since passing the bar and following up on tax law. I’ve furnished a lot of advice and righted a lot of wrongs, and I must say that what you’ve posted makes utter sense. Please continue the good work – the more people know the better they’ll be outfitted to cope with the tax man, and that’s what it’s all about.