esavvymom
Staff member
- 7,895
Be sure to have a mileage book in your car.
Whenever you drive anywhere, if it is for business, record the mileage and the purpose of the trip. I would caution about ABUSING this, ie don't claim going to the post office for stamps/shipping, and then drive an additional 30 miles and include it as business. You can set yourself up for an audit that could get ugly (especially since IRS is cracking down on home-businesses apparently).
Since my business is low, I mostly track my cluster meetings and specific business trips- like to a show, host meeting, etc. But at an average of 55 cents a mile (varies each year, and sometimes through out the year).
ALSO - if you are involved in a charity in someway, you may be able to claim mileage there too! We are Cub Scout leaders. We log our miles, plus I go back and use our calendar for the year showing all of our meetings and activities. I then enter the trip into Google Maps to calculate the miles based on the routes I take. Charity miles are around 14 cents per mile. This pretty much covers my gas expense.
This will help on your tax returns. (As with anything with taxes, research the rules or talk to your tax advisor for the details. Google "IRS Mileage deductions" and you'll likely get what you need.)
Whenever you drive anywhere, if it is for business, record the mileage and the purpose of the trip. I would caution about ABUSING this, ie don't claim going to the post office for stamps/shipping, and then drive an additional 30 miles and include it as business. You can set yourself up for an audit that could get ugly (especially since IRS is cracking down on home-businesses apparently).
Since my business is low, I mostly track my cluster meetings and specific business trips- like to a show, host meeting, etc. But at an average of 55 cents a mile (varies each year, and sometimes through out the year).
ALSO - if you are involved in a charity in someway, you may be able to claim mileage there too! We are Cub Scout leaders. We log our miles, plus I go back and use our calendar for the year showing all of our meetings and activities. I then enter the trip into Google Maps to calculate the miles based on the routes I take. Charity miles are around 14 cents per mile. This pretty much covers my gas expense.
This will help on your tax returns. (As with anything with taxes, research the rules or talk to your tax advisor for the details. Google "IRS Mileage deductions" and you'll likely get what you need.)
