While you all know you can deduct your mileage for mystery shopping, one thing people seem to always forget is that you can additionally deduct part of your vehicle license tax (not the registration, just the deductible tax part) and car loan interest on the Schedule C (the rest of the tax is deducted on Schedule A; the other loan interest is not deductible). This is done on a percentage basis. If you drove 15,000 miles for the year and 5,000 of those miles were for mystery shopping, 1/3 of the license tax and 1/3 of your loan interest is deductible *in addition to* the 56 cents a mile on your Schedule C, where it will help reduce the SE tax you have to pay.

In order to make that computation, your tax preparer will ask how many total miles you drove. Even if you don't know what your starting odometer was on Jan 1 of 2014, go write it down for today. You'll use that as the ending odo for 2014 and it will be the starting figure for your 2015 calculations.

If you didn't write down the 2014 figure, find an odometer reading from a service receipt near the first of the year. Let's say you got the oil changed on November 15, 2013 and the odometer was 55,025 miles. Today you look and it's 67,335 miles.

Subtract 55025 from 67335. The oil change was 13.5 months ago. Divide the result by 13.5. That's your average miles per month. Multiply that by 12. That's your approximate miles for the year. Subtract that from 67,335. That is your approximate starting mileage for Jan 1, 2014. Give those two figures to your tax preparer for your starting and ending mileage. By having the ending mileage in the tax return, if the same person does your return next year, the program will automatically fill in 67,355 as your starting mileage for 2015.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2015 03:49PM by dspeakes.

Thanks.

Thanks for the reminder!

LOL. I guess I have to raise my hand and admit I forgot to write down my own and have been into town running errands all over the place in my truck (we got a foot of snow in the last 24 hours; I needed the 4WD to get out of my own yard). But I remember the trip meter was at 127 so I can go check that and do the math and calculate the odometer reading.

My 20-year old son saw me writing it down this morning, and suggested that even better would be to take a date and time stamped photo with my cell phone (I have an app on my Android which adds both). He earned his keep today. I am going to record the number, and keep the photo as documentation.

I went out at 1 am and took a picture of my odometer so I wouldn't lose the paper/forget where I wrote it down.

I had an oil change in early December. I scanned the receipt and filed the scanned image with my shop receipts. That provides an independent verification of the mileage. That same image will be filed in my January 2015 shop receipts for the same verification purposes.

Hey, you just reminded me. I saved the receipt I got for my inspection I got in Jan 2014 as backup for my starting mileage. I have to scan it yet to save it.

Here's a tip. Start your 2015 tax file folder today. Toss into it, or write on the outside of the file folder, the Jan. 1 2015 odometer reading. That way, you will not be searching for a pic or a scrap of paper at tax time next year. Did you have to feed the parking meter for a shop? Jot a list of those expenses on the front of the same folder, or note that expense in the little notebook that you keep in the car to record business mileage. With local meters at a dollar and up per hour, those add up!

I'm going to put the number at the top of my 'mileage' column on my spread sheet.
Thanks for the tip!

I noted today, gasoline is now under $2. I was intending on doing an average of 5 stations per day/20 + per week. If i spend the maximum of $5 per station on gas purchases, I'll very quickly filly tank.

My own plan for doing my gas stations with gasoline this low is to have at least 3 vehicles at my disposal. Hubby suggests taking his 15 mpg SUV too. Its muffler is bad and the radio only works sometimes.

So, I suppose I'll need to write down the mileage on the primarily used auto and then just record the mileage on the others.

Would that be correct?

Sunoco gasoline reimbursement is now limited to $2 total, so if that is where you are going, you are going to need more shops.

@myst4au: No these are the Pegasus shops. There is a $5 maximum for gasoline per shop. Simple math equals 2.5 gallons a shop.

Tatjana Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My own plan for doing my gas stations with
> gasoline this low is to have at least 3 vehicles
> at my disposal. Hubby suggests taking his 15 mpg
> SUV too. Its muffler is bad and the radio only
> works sometimes.
>
> So, I suppose I'll need to write down the mileage
> on the primarily used auto and then just record
> the mileage on the others.
>
> Would that be correct?


No, record the starting odo for all the vehicles you might use in your business, and keep track of which vehicle you drove for each shop. You need to show each vehicle separately on the tax return and compute the mileage for each.

But if it was a one-off situation, it's not going to hurt anything or be cheating anybody if you just added those miles to your usual vehicle. I did a shop on the way to get hay once when I was driving the truck. I went maybe 20 miles out of my way for the shops. I'm not going to break those out, they'll just be counted as if I had driven the car. But if you will regularly use all three vehicles, keep a log in each car. And if you're not sure -- go write down the odometer readings for all cars in the household so if something changes later in the year and you start using a car you weren't planning to use for shopping, you will have that starting odometer reading already.

Oh, BTW, if you buy or sell a car during the year, remember to record the odometer reading on the date of transaction. It's very easy to forget that if you're selling. If you're buying, the odometer reading at time of sale may be on the title. Make sure you also get the one on the car you sell or trade in.

@dspeakes: Thank you for such pertinent, timely and helpful information!

BTW, cat sleeping happily upon my lap, purring loudly.

I probably had one on my lap while I wrote that.

I keep a small log book in the car of mileage, gas purchases, price per gallon and how many gallons it took. It's also a good way to calculate your MPG.

YOU just SAVED me a whole lot of money!! THANKS for this post, some things I just forget to do, love my reports, forget myself, typical for me.

Thanks, now I have to go and fill out my mileage sheet for last week. My work week runs Sunday to Saturday.



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BTW My Meezer just left lap and wants to chase the mouse across the desk.