Kathee70 Wrote:
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>
> Keep in mind that if you start your vehicle
> deduction, no matter what you choose, you will
> have to keep that way of doing it every year. The
> only way to change it is when you get another
> vehicle.
>
> I am not a tax expert. This is just the way I do
> it. I can say I have been audited and the way that
> I do it has been accepted.
Kathee, it is not true that you can't change from standard mileage to actual expenses. You can. You can also change from actual expenses to standard mileage under certain circumstances. This is an oft-quoted myth (that you can't change) but it is not true.
The tax code is very complicated and changes with some regularity. Too many people lock onto what is generally true (once you pick a vehicle procedure you stick with it) and think that it is always true, and then pass that misinformation to others.
Everyone should either discuss their own tax situation with their own tax preparer or read the IRS guidelines and get their own education that way. But if you do not have any credentials as a tax preparer or tax expert of some sort, it would be better not to attempt to instruct others. It's not fair to the people who might follow your advice to their own detriment.
(I am an IRS Registered Tax Return Preparer. I've been a tax preparer for over 15 years and specialized in Taxation when I got my accounting degree.)
To answer OP's question -- no, you don't have to record the odometer reading coming and going every day. The reason for recording the reading at beginning and end of the year is to compute "total miles driven" so you can come up with a business use percentage after you add up all your business miles. Business/Total = Business percentage, which applies to the registration fees and the vehicle loan interest (and the actual expenses, if you are using that method). (You all do know that part of your loan interest is deductible, don't you?)
I keep my Mapquest printouts with my route shop documents and log my miles on my spreadsheet for each route. The IRS won't care about your odometer readings; they will want to know where you went, for what purpose, and how many miles you drove to get there, and the date. If you have those four components for each day or each shop (whatever works for you) then you should be fine.
Time to build a bigger bridge.