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Another Prius Benefit

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by Salsawonder, Feb 27, 2006.

  1. Salsawonder

    Salsawonder New Member

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    I was sitting here doing my mileage form for the month of February when I saw that my re-imbursement for 358 work related miles was going to be $144.99 (.405/mile).

    My friend across the hall has an Explorer and was yelling at me as I was laughing because she knew it was about gas mileage.

    As I see it driving the Prius for work earned me $120 in one month! Considering the low rate of maintenance and the improved gas mileage from my old Sport Trac (14mpg). Over half of that is pure profit!
     
    #1 Salsawonder, Feb 27, 2006
  2. ScottY

    ScottY New Member

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    Hey! same thing happened to me! But only for once.

    I drove around 38 miles for a work related event. Company reimbursed $17! That's almost one week of gas for me. :D :lol:
     
    #2 ScottY, Feb 27, 2006
  3. Tempus

    Tempus Senior Member

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    The Federal Mileage reimbursement rate is now .445/mile

    Make sure they don't owe you more money than you think :)

    It was .485/mile form Sep1-05-Jan1-06, but they dropped it back after gas prices dropped.

    It hasn't been .405/mile since last September.
     
    #3 Tempus, Feb 27, 2006
  4. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    hmmm... i think i got ripped off. that would be tax free right?
     
    #4 DaveinOlyWA, Feb 27, 2006
  5. Salsawonder

    Salsawonder New Member

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    Not a federal job, non-profit so I can't complain.

    It is raining in SD this evening so I had some particular fun (safely) choosing places where I could test out the VSC/squiggly car lights, so cool! (once you get use to the feeling that the car is driving itself)
     
    #5 Salsawonder, Feb 27, 2006
  6. jtullos

    jtullos New Member

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    You still might want to look into the mileage rate. I'm not in a federal job, but I get the federal reimbursement rate. I think it's the minimum, but I may be wrong, and you may be under a special case, being with a non-profit.

    But don't make the mistake of overestimating how much you're profiting from that. You've got to consider the full cost of every mile you drive, not just in gas, but in maintenance, insurance, etc.
     
    #6 jtullos, Feb 27, 2006
  7. fshagan

    fshagan Senior Member

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    Most companies use the IRS rate, but they don't have to. I've heard, but haven't verified, that you can take the difference between the IRS rate and what you get as an "unreimbursed business expense", subject to deduction rules (which means you would need a lot of it to qualify!)

    Your point is well taken. You also have to consider the depreciation on the car and the total cost per mile. Take what you paid for the car, divided by the number of miles you expect to drive it, and for me, I'm already up to .24 a mile ($24,000 paid, and I figure to drive it 100,000 miles at least). That's already more than half of the IRS rate, and I haven't calculated in gas, maintenance, taxes, etc. There's more to it than that, of course, as you have to calculate the residual value of the car when you turn it in, the amount of interest you pay on the loan, etc.

    Cars are expensive.
     
    #7 fshagan, Feb 28, 2006
  8. Tempus

    Tempus Senior Member

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    100K miles at $.445/Mile would be $44,500

    That pays for a lot of depreciation, gas, insurance and maintenance :)

    Certainly close to break even if not a profit.
     
    #8 Tempus, Feb 28, 2006
  9. maggieddd

    maggieddd Senior Member

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    I just got paid $30.26 for 68 miles. That's funny. Almost two weeks of free gas
     
    #9 maggieddd, Feb 28, 2006
  10. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Based on total purchase cost, current resale value (at 84k miles), insurance, fuel, and maintenance, I figured that I am now at about 22 cents per mile total costs. My long range (300k miles) goal is to keep it under 25.

    Nobdy from the IRS reads these, right?
     
    #10 tochatihu, Feb 28, 2006
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