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How to Make Tax Deductions for Cars and Trucks ?

  Sanjiv Gupta CPA  Published 
How to Make Tax Deductions for Cars and Trucks ?

Cost of operating a truck, car or other kinds of the automobile is tax-deductible when moving and relocating or driving for medical, business or charity purposes. The deduction made corresponds to the mileage driven for such tax credits. You may opt for the standard rate of mileage in place of calculating actual car expenditure for these individual tax credits.

Medical Purpose

Driving in order to obtain medical care for either yourself or your dependents is what Medical Purpose covers. This kind of drive must primarily cater to medical care, as indicated by IRS (Publication 502) and the deduction is reflected on Schedule A and comprises part of medical expenses for an individual.

Business Purpose

Business purpose pertains to driving away from your regular employment location to a different worksite in order to meet with a client or traveling for a business engagement. Commuting from home to office does not qualify for this category of individual tax credits. This kind of incentive is captured by Schedule C for self-employed individuals, Schedule F for farmers or as an itemized deduction that forms part of unreimbursed business expenses provided in Form 2106 for an employee.

Moving and Relocating

You can deduct the driving cost for relocating to a new place of residence as part of the moving expense deduction. To qualify for this incentive, it will be necessary to cover a distance of at least 50 miles away from the old home more than what you earlier covered in-between the old home and old job. The deduction is present on Form 3903.

Charitable Purpose

Individual tax credits are available for any vehicle used for providing services to charitable organizations. The corresponding deduction is covered by Schedule A as part of charitable donations. It may involve driving for volunteer causes for a charity, church or hospital.

Actual Expenses

Various elements count as a truck or car expense including:

  • parking fees and tolls
  • vehicle registration fees
  • interest on loan
  • rental and lease expense
  • vehicle registration fees
  • personal property tax
  • fuel and gasoline
  • insurance
  • depreciation
  • repairs including tires, oil changes, and such routine maintenance

However, fines and tickets such as for parking may not be deducted. In addition, expenditure relating to commuting or personal use is not deductible. Various car expenses may also be deducted depending upon why you are driving. One cannot claim interest, insurance, and depreciation as well as auto repairs for medical expenses and charity deductions.

Standard Mileage Rates

Rather than tally up all actual car expenditures, you may utilize a standard mileage rate to aid in calculating deductions. There are standard mileage rates to achieve this goal. It is multiplied by the mileage drive to establish the dollar amount deductible for car expenses as obtained from Notice 2014-79 of the IRS.

 Standard Mileage Rates
Type of use
The year 2015
Business
57.5 cents per mile
Medical or moving
23 cents per mile
Charitable service
14 cents per mile

 

In addition to the standard mileage rates, taxpayers may also deduct tolls and parking fees as stipulated by the IRS in chapter 4 of Publication 463.

Comparing between Actual Expenses and Standard Mileage Rate

You may use any method that will lead to a larger amount of your tax deduction. This varies with individuals depending upon the number of miles driven, the amount of depreciation claimed and other expense variables. Claiming standard mileage rate provides results with less paperwork. It is suited best for situations where the car is driven at times for charity, work or medical appointments and the owner is avoiding lengthy scrutiny of all car-related expenditure.

 

You will require selecting the standard mileage rate option within the first year of using your automobile for business purposes in order to claim the corresponding deduction. If you start by claiming actual expenses, it will be necessary to retain the actual expense option for the entire time duration of using your vehicle for business. IRS Publication 463 offers further clarity on this situation.

Where to Make Claims for Car and Truck Expenses

Expenses for vehicles get reported on Schedule C for self-employed individuals and Form 2106 for the Employee Business Expenses. In particular, this deduction is a miscellaneous itemized deduction that is subject to 2 percent of the adjusted gross income limit. It implies that unreimbursed employee expenses may be deducted, although the taxpayer does not benefit from the full deduction dollar-to-dollar on tax returns.

Vehicle expenses get reported on Schedule A for medical vehicle uses, together with other medical expenses.

For charitable car use, the expense gets reported on Schedule A, together with related charitable donations.

Practicing Good Record-Keeping

Ensure keeping a mileage log as it will demonstrate your eligibility for car and truck individual tax credits. This document should show the date of each trip made that is tax-deductible. It will be necessary as well to record the total mileage covered for the entire year, which makes it pivotal indicating the odometer reading as each year begins at the first.