Anyone drive a fleet vehicle for their job?

If you use personal car for business and file for tax deduction, you have to keep a detail daily log of where you go and distance of the car including personal trips. It is too time consuming and tedious and 90% of the time will trigger an audit.

I advice not to do it.

 

Tedious is in the eye of the beholder. I find it trivial. I write down the odometer when my business travel starts and ends, and keep a running total. End of story.

Nonsense

 

That's assuming highway miles. I drive through the Maryland and DC on the way to my parents. There is regularly traffic, even on the interstates. Except for maybe western Maryland and W. Va, the OPs territory is a fairly congested place. I wouldn't worry too much about snow because the car is going to see a lot of salt.

Besides the pure $, there is the appearance wear. I don't know about the gen3, but there were complaints on the gen2 fabric not being sturdy enough. The car won't just be a commuter, sounds like it also will be an office and dining area.

 

No doubt about it, McD's will age a car quickly
If OP uses her Prius, she is well advised to walk into the fast food joint.

 

I would not have associated 'dining' with McD's.

 

If you are a business owner, then you are fine.
If you are an employee, the use of personal car usually gets reimbursed by the employer on a per mileage bases per trip.
Very rarely a employer will allow a personal car for business use on long term, IRS is very wary about this especially one get reimbursed and also claim tax deduction. That is why it always trigger audit.
Another thing, the deduction is usually large, >$10K, IRS would likely look at this kind of deduction very closely.

 

Getting reimbursed by the company AND taking a deduction by the employee is illegal. No wonder your acquaintances get audited.

 

None of my acquaintances use personal car for business use and get audited for illegal tax deduction.
You know the risk is very high for this kind of deduction even it is legally claimed.

 

At 50 cents a mile and 30,000 miles a year, we are talking about a $15,000 deduction. Depending on total income, that might raise some eyebrows at the IRS.

 

"Double dipping" has not been advocated by anyone in this thread, and most certainly not by me.

Hopefully somebody else with your question will be able to read this thread with comprehension and make an informed choice.

 

Please ignore my posts. They are written for non-idiots.

For anyone else: my earlier comments DO NOT suggest taking a deduction for an ineligible expense.

 

Generally speaking, a per mile rate is the easiest for both employer and employee. You have to keep track of the miles driven, obviously, but that's all. The amount is neither taxable nor deductible, and you don't need receipts.

A monthly allowance is a bit different, in that it's added to your pay as a taxable benefit. You are entitled to claim your actual costs, based on the business mileage, as a deduction to reduce the taxes paid on the income. You will need to keep all of your receipts. Where there's a mix of personal and business use on the same vehicle, you will need a log book with dates and odometer readings.

If you're required to use your vehicle for business use with no compensation from the employer, the forms are different, but the requirements are basically the same.

As long as you are making a legitimate claim and have the records to back it up, there is no need to fear an audit.

This information may or may not apply to your particular situation, or to the jurisdiction in which you reside.

 

I think you are referring to the situation where a private car is used, and the employee requests compensation from the employer.

That is not a situation I have personal experience with, but if memory serves me, any compensation from the employer greater than actual expenses is viewed as extra salary and is taxable. I'm not sure how a per mile allowance up to the federal rate would be treated.

The situation I was thinking of was using a private car for business miles outside of travel to the primary workplace, with all expenses paid by the employee and no travel compensation received from the employer. In that case (to my understanding, anyway) the employee is then eligible for a tax deduction on the personal federal tax return, and the per mile rate may be applied. I don't think employer agreement is needed or even relevant, although it would be prudent to have an accountant verify that detail.

Even better (usually) would be if the employer compensates for private vehicle use, but not all companies offer that choice.

 

Yes, I am. It's not relevant to fleets, but there were enough questions about personal and business use of private vehicles that I thought it worthwhile to add my two cents.

It gets even trickier when you have two or more vehicles in the year - two forms, and all receipts and mileage records have to be kept separately for each car. And in Canada, if you're self-employed, it's even more complicated. To be thorough and claim all the deductions you're entitled to, you get to amortise the tax on the purchase price.

 

US taxpayers are given a choice of either taking a per mile rate, or what you describe for Canada.

The per mile rate is extremely generous (for Prius owners, anyway ), and the only documentation required is a mileage log that separates out business from personal miles. The tax deduction is a trivial matter, and the taxpayer is only asked to keep the log for review upon tax authority request.

This mileage log requirement is common enough that a slew of apps for phones have been written to aid the loggers. I found it simpler to add a page to the SS I use for my business. At the start of each business trip I would zero a trip meter and at the end write down the trip mileage and odometer reading for entry into the SS.

 

It all sounds pretty similar, then. I have no idea what the situation is for our members in other countries.

 

The deduction is more complicated than that. If your normal travel distance is to your regular work place is 20 miles. You take your car to go to the client's office from your home and the distance is 30 miles, then only 30-20 = 10 miles is eligible for compensation from the view of the IRS. If the distance to the client is less than 20 miles, you get nothing.

 

No doubt, it is wise to read the relevant IRS publications, and sometimes a CPA should be consulted. I have not tried to include every detail involved in determining eligibility or the deduction amount.

Pub 463 from the IRS is pretty easy reading (for an IRS publication, anyway.) E.g., this snippet: