Taxes

[WindyCity]

Careful here, if you get audited, it can come back and bite you with a requirement to reverse all the mileage deductions along with penalties and fees.

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I get what you are saying but What is an audit going to do? In order to prove the mileage was accurate someone would literally have to follow me around for an entire year tracking my movements and try to figure out if that Home Depot run was personal use or business use.

Every construction contractor I know that uses their truck for mixed business and personal use guesstimates their mileage. If they put 12k a year on The truck mostly for business they will say 10,000 of it was business in 2000 was personal. Or to make it look good 9857 miles business and 2143 personal miles

The only people That I know that keep accurate records of every mile they put on their cars are employees of a company that are using their car for business use so they can get reimbursed, But I couldn’t even imagine trying to log every mile I put on my vehicle every day of every week whether it was a personal or business trip


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[sudsmobile]

I always wondered what pulling a wrapped trailer does for you. If I'm pulling it around 100% of the time, am I advertising? Is that business related? As it is, I probably use my rig for business 99% of the mileage because, well, it has a trailer attached 100% of the time.

[Jon TDS]

For mileage, QuickBooks self employed thru phone app tracks it for me. You'll just have to classify business or personal once tracked.

Per my accountant, mileage recorded here also adds anything to do with your vehicle (ie maintenance, gas, depreciation, etc). It averages out compared to tracking individually.

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[sudsmobile]

My accountant told me the same thing. Just track mileage. It incorporates all auto related expenses.

[usshelena725]

I get what you are saying but What is an audit going to do? In order to prove the mileage was accurate someone would literally have to follow me around for an entire year tracking my movements and try to figure out if that Home Depot run was personal use or business use.

Every construction contractor I know that uses their truck for mixed business and personal use guesstimates their mileage. If they put 12k a year on The truck mostly for business they will say 10,000 of it was business in 2000 was personal. Or to make it look good 9857 miles business and 2143 personal miles

The only people That I know that keep accurate records of every mile they put on their cars are employees of a company that are using their car for business use so they can get reimbursed, But I couldn’t even imagine trying to log every mile I put on my vehicle every day of every week whether it was a personal or business trip


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I'm not saying it makes sense, or is practical, but it is the law. Unfortunately, dealing with the IRS is never a fun experience and unlike a typical criminal case scenario, the onus of validity isn't on the accuser, but on the accused when it comes to dealing with an IRS audit.

The IRS is not required to prove you were lying about the business mileage, you have to prove to the IRS that you were telling the truth. As you have noted in your post, this can be very difficult to do, and odds are, if the auditor wants to be a jerk, he can deny nearly all mileage claims since it is so difficult to prove them out.

Just use smart judgement and track business mileage to the best of your ability. In the vast percentage of IRS audits, the auditor is rarely looking for honest errors or mistakes - he is looking for purposeful deceit. If it is obvious that you are making a conscious effort to properly track your mileage, then it will usually suffice. If there is any hint of dubious mileage claims, then he will probably delve deeper looking to pull on that thread, and chances are it will not end well for you.

You do what you want, I am just telling you to be careful.