Eight Steps to Logging Business Miles for Taxes

Kathryn Hatter reports:

"When you use a personal car for business purposes, the Internal Revenue Service allows you to write off the business-related miles on your income tax return. To deduct this mileage from your taxes, you must keep careful records of the miles you drive each time you use your car for business reasons...Record your odometer reading on Jan. 1 of the new tax year. Keep track of this number for tax purposes...Record the date each time you get behind the wheel for a business-related matter. Note what the business driving was for -- going to an appointment to show a house, for example, if you are a real estate agent. Record the odometer reading before departing for business driving...Record the final odometer reading when your business driving has concluded for the day...Repeat this process each day that you use your car for business matters...Add up your business mileage at the end of each week and keep track of the weekly totals...Record your odometer reading again on Dec. 31, at the conclusion of the tax year. Subtract your initial Jan. 1 odometer reading from the final odometer reading to determine the total miles you drove your car for the entire tax year...Add up all your weekly mileage totals at the end of the year. This is your total annual business mileage...Transfer the business mileage information to IRS Form 2106 Part 2. Enter the total miles you drove your vehicle during the tax year on line 12, and enter the business miles on line 13. Complete the remainder of the form by following the line-by-line instructions...Do not include commuting miles in your mileage. The only miles you can include are business miles you drive to perform your job. If you drive directly between two jobs, you can include this mileage in your business mileage. If you drive a combination of business and personal miles on the same day, keep track of the different mileage for each and subtract the personal miles from the business miles to keep accurate accounting of the business miles only."