{"id":60,"date":"2009-12-15T11:18:21","date_gmt":"2009-12-15T19:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.huddlestontaxcpas.com\/CPA%20Article\/how-to-correctly-deduct-car-and-truck-expense\/"},"modified":"2009-12-15T11:18:21","modified_gmt":"2009-12-15T19:18:21","slug":"how-to-correctly-deduct-car-and-truck-expense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/blog\/how-to-correctly-deduct-car-and-truck-expense\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Correctly Deduct Car and Truck Expense"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you use your car or truck for business, generally the expenses associated with that are deductible as business expenses.\u00a0 You can deduct the auto expenses for business when you are traveling from one work location to another, visiting customers, attending business meetings away from your regular workplace, or getting from home to a temporary workplace.\u00a0 You should remember that auto expenses related to travel between your home and your regular place of work are considered commuting expenses and are not deductible.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font>There are two options for deducting auto expense on your tax return.\u00a0 You can choose to use either the standard mileage rate or actual expenses.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font>The standard mileage rate can be used to figure the auto deduction if the car or truck is owned or leased.\u00a0 When your auto is leased and you use the standard mileage rate, it must be used for the entire lease period.\u00a0 The standard mileage rate is adjusted annually by the Internal Revenue Service.\u00a0 For 2009 the rate is 55 cents per mile.\u00a0 There are a few cases when you are not allowed to use the standard mileage rate and that is when you use the car for hire, use more than five cars at a time, claim depreciation on the auto, or are a rural mail carrier.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font>The actual expense method includes deducting expenses for depreciation, gas, insurance, repairs, oil changes, registration, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 In the case of the actual expense method, if your business use is less than 100% you must allocate the expenses between business and personal use.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font>No matter which method you choose it is important to keep good records of your expenses and your miles driven both personal and business.\u00a0 It is important to keep a mileage log and the receipts for gas, repairs, etc.\u00a0<\/font>If you have questions on whether or not an auto expenses is deductible or about which method is better for your situation then please contact your tax advisor.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Jessica Chisholm, CPA<\/a>
\nSeattle\/Bellevue Tax Accountants<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you use your car or truck for business, generally the expenses associated with that are deductible as business expenses.\u00a0 You can deduct the auto expenses for business when you are traveling from one work location to another, visiting customers, attending business meetings away from your regular workplace, or getting from home to a temporary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-60","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-deductions","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huddlestontaxcpas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}