Everyone keeps telling us that we need to start deducting mileage from our taxes. Does anyone know what I will need for this? Dh's job requires him to drive long distances to work sometimes. Like a few months back he had to go over 600 miles (one way) to get to the job location. Now it is 150 miles one way, so this is a big thing for us if I can figure out how to do this legally and such. I don't want to make any mistakes. Now this is what I have done this year, I kept track on the calendar on what days he drove and how far. I totaled all those up and he has drove (just to and from work) 14,723.6 miles this year alone. This could be a really big deduction for us if I can figure out how to claim it properly.
I think all you really need is pen and paper. We just write down the date, home to post office, post office to home and then the mileage for that destination. You can claim either mileage or upkeep on the car, I think it works out to around 50 cents/mile.
DH just added if it's the company's car, then the company will deduct it. If it's your personal car then you can deduct it, and definitely should!
well I just found out, if I am reading the IRS site right. That we don't qualify, because they consider it a commute to work and you cannot take that deduction as a regular employee. Now is that stupid or what.
Usually you can deduct what is OVER the normal commute to the regular office. So if normally, the office is 15 miles to and from (30 miles total), then you can deduct anything over that 30 miles....assuming the company doesn't pay you for mileage. If they do, then you can't deduct it because they are. Not sure what your husband does for his job, but if he doesn't have a "regular" office then the rules probably differ. You can check the IRS publication on both business deductions (for Schedule A) or if he's self-employeed (Schedule C)...The instruction/pub on Schedule 2106 would probably have it too. And yes, in my former life, I was a tax accountant (but way out of practice after 10 years out of the biz).
No he doesn't have a regular office. He works on the oil and gas rigs. So, there really is not a "standard/regular" amount of miles. Also we work for a cheap company they don't pay anything. Not even per deim. But that is life.
Handsome covers about 48,000 miles a year, depending on the job location. He usually never covers less than 35,000. We were told that he can claim the miles but since we now have a company truck, it can't be claimed anymore. I am assuming that different states have different laws or does mileage have to do with federal taxes? I do not know.
Goodness! Handsome just corrected me. He said that when he works in Irvine, he drives 52,000 miles to work for the year, not 48,000. Basically it is 1000 miles a week and there is 52 weeks in a year. The job he is at right now, he has covered 33,600 for work alone, this past year.
I think it is a lot too but he is actually used to it. There was a possible job in the city over. Another company underbid Handsome's boss, but if he did get the building, this would be the first time Handsome never had to drive the freeway to get to work. What would have been great is that this would be the first job he ever had where he could leave 30 minutes before work starts. LOL Oh well! It wasn't part of the plan.
We claim mileage but as said before it can't be to the regular place of work. My dh always works in different locations so mileage is always different. I just figure out the mileage and give it to our accountant. We have way too many deductions to do myself.
Oh and he gets meal allowance on the income tax so I also need to tell my accountant where he was at with all the travels.
That was my understanding by reading it. So, since it is the same rig which would be the same place, just a different location each time. I really believe that we don't qualify. Thank you for all the input.
I know. I am just trying to get on top of all of it. The company we work for seems to have them out to us every year by the last week in Jan. So, I try to get all in order.
