I've just moved back to the US after living abroad since I was 18. Taxes are honestly still confusing for me, especially because I lived in a tax free country. The posts I've found here have been really helpful, but I do have a question:

I recently started and since I read that you have to file taxes on this, I started keeping records on a spreadsheet in excel and I include the exact address I went to and mileage now, but I didn't for my previous shops. I know that you should keep a little book in your car and keep track of your mileage and I'm starting to do that now though I didn't for my previous shops, but isn't it possible if I have the exact address to search it on Google Maps or Mapquest and choose the route I took and list the mileage that it tells me there as the mileage? Because it's obvious I went to said address: there are records of it in the company and I could print it out to prove that is what I was paid for in my payment or job histories.

Anyone have any advice?

Oh, sorry for the silly title! Too bad I can't go back and edit that... I couldn't decide whether I was going to say "Mileage Keeping Question" or "Mileage Record Question"!

The title is just fine. :-)

Thanks! I've been going nuts tonight trying to add everything up and see if I'm winning money or losing so my brain is completely frazzled!

Good news is I'm not losing! So far I've done 18 shops these past two months and I spent $23.31 for gas and $43.00 for a printer/scanner! And I've made $283 total, so that means my actual profit so far has been $216.69! It's a start!

lizka Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I recently started and since I read that you have
> to file taxes on this, I started keeping records
> on a spreadsheet in excel and I include the exact
> address I went to and mileage now, but I didn't
> for my previous shops. I know that you should keep
> a little book in your car and keep track of your
> mileage and I'm starting to do that now though I
> didn't for my previous shops, but isn't it
> possible if I have the exact address to search it
> on Google Maps or Mapquest and choose the route I
> took and list the mileage that it tells me there
> as the mileage? Because it's obvious I went to
> said address: there are records of it in the
> company and I could print it out to prove that is
> what I was paid for in my payment or job
> histories.
>
There's no problem with inputting your mileage, after the fact. Sometimes Mapquest and Google give 'as the crow flies' mileage, which is less than your odometer reading would be, so you may be shortchanging actual mileage a bit.

When I have forgotten to do the mileage or the math came out to something absurd, I have no qualms about using maps.google.com to calculate it. It is 'reasonable' that IRS is looking for. It would be absurd for me to claim 34.5 miles to a store 5 miles from me. And interestingly, I find that maps.google.com is accurate in my area within a few tenths of a mile, which could readily be travel in parking lots to park near the door.

Realize that in doing the vehicle deduction you will EITHER be claiming actual costs of operating your vehicle (the business use percentage of gas, repairs, maintenance, insurance, vehicle depreciation) OR the business use mileage at 55 cents per mile (for 2009). So if you drove 9000 miles during the year and 900 was for shops, under the actual cost method you would be deducting 1/10 of the vehicle costs for the year while under the business use mileage method you would be deducting $495. Remember that tolls and parking costs are extras that can be claimed regardless of which method you choose.

I have been self-employed and had to keep mileage records for most of my adult life. I keep a small notebook in the car. You can take a "sample" of 3 months, compute the % that is employement related use that to apply to you automobile costs, or you can log every trip all year. I log every trip in the notebook, but there is really no need to copy that all into a spread sheet. Just put the annual notebook pages into your hardcopy file for the tax year and you are done!

My notebook just has the date, the end reading from the night before, a list of my business stops for the date and, perhaps, a note saying "grocs enroute" or "Rx enroute." and the new end-of-day reading. This means that, without going more than about a mile out of the way, I included a non-business stop in the day's business route, and identifies what it was. This is allowed by the IRS and is the key to minimizing your "personal" mileage. (I note what the non-business stop was because, if ever audited, I can show that my debits from my bank for groceries, preseciptions, etc., were virtually all on days when I had shopping assignments in the immediate area. By carefully planning my routes and errands, I have documentation that more than 85% of my mileage was business-related.

So, when I did 3 parking shops one day, I refilled a prescriptions between the first two shops, got groceries between shops 2 and 3, and picked up my dry cleaning on the way home. Of course, as a real diehard shopper, I never go to the bank without either being paid to go or having MS deposits to make, so all bank stops are business trips.

I just note the mileage on the DVR on the way out and when I return. When I am reporting the shop, the information is there and as I put in any unreimbursed expenses or reimbursements and the date the shop was performed and reported and any other significant information on the spreadsheet, the mileage goes in as well. The spreadsheet automatically keeps track of mileage YTD and extends to what the current deduction will be for mileage to track the overall P/L progress of my business for the year.

I keep a log in the car, writing down name of Co., job, city, miles and date. Great way to keep track, and super easy. Then have Doner folder in computer, shdowing every job done for that year.....easy to print out and track.