Transportation business expense

[Eddie46]

I use my personal for my farm and bookkeeping business.  I do not track mileage.  I use gasoline tickets.  Turbotax does not let do this.  How can I do this? 

[AnnetteB6]

If you use your personal vehicle for business purposes, you are expected and required to keep track of the miles that were driven for business purposes as well as the total miles driven for the year.  This information is needed to calculate either the standard mileage deduction or the actual expenses deduction for the costs of using the vehicle for business purposes.

There is not a way to enter deductible vehicle expenses without the mileage information.  You can use service records (such as oil change receipts) to try to determine the total miles driven for the year.  Depending on the nature of your businesses, you may be able to recreate a log for the business miles that you drove.  

For future returns, you should be keeping records or a log of the miles driven for business purposes.  In the event that your return is ever examined by the IRS in an audit, they may require you to provide this documentation or disallow the deduction.  

[wgfpd154]

I am experiencing an issue with the program adding both mileage deduction AND the itemized expenses I wanted to claim this year. How do I get the software to allow JUST the itemized instead of the mileage deduction? I did input tracked miles and chose the box to instead itemize.

[AmyC]

On the Car and Truck Expenses Worksheet, you can see the standard deduction based on miles and you can see the actual expenses. Part V shows the computation. Are you saying that the program is adding them together? I use the desktop software and am not having a problem. What are you seeing, what software, more information please!

@wgfpd154

[wgfpd154]

Yes, it is not allowing me to subtract the allowable deduction for mileage and instead use actual figures. It won't allow moving forward from the odometer page, so I am inputting my odometer mileage for total use as directed. Then clicking on the use actual expenses instead of taking the allowed deduction and continuing to the page where you can fill in the amounts you spend for business use for the year. When I continue, it is adding the mileage deduction from odometer mileage reported AND the expenses I entered on the "choose to use actual expenses" page.

I am using the basic desktop software for self employed on Windows 10 with Firefox browser.

The reason this is so important, is because my vehicle gets really good mileage and the overinflated "allowed" deduction takes almost ALL my profit away, to the point of being unbelievable that anyone would work this much for free.  My vehicle uses about .15 per mile and IRS is giving me like 57.5 per mile.

I have always claimed the mileage expense, but this will be the very first year using deduction for this new car.

The only thing I can figure is that since I have always claimed mileage from the get go, and the car used for 2019 taxes was used for the first 3 months of 2020, that it is not "allowing" me to change up and use actual expenses even though it is for a different car.

[DawnC]

You should have both cars listed in the Vehicle Expense section with the dates you used of each of them.  You can take the standard mileage on one and the actual expenses on the other or vice versa depending on what you have done in the past, see more below.   And there are some car expenses you can claim in addition to the standard mileage rate (interest on an auto loan, registration and property tax fees, and parking and tolls).   You have to enter the mileage (even if you are taking actual expenses) to calculate the business use percentage.    

If you want to use the standard mileage rate to calculate vehicle expenses, you must choose it in the first year you use the car for business. In later years you can choose to use the standard mileage rate or switch to actual expenses.

Once you use actual expenses for the vehicle (even if it's the first year you used it for business), you can't switch to standard mileage rate. You must continue using actual expenses as long as you use that car for business.

If you use the standard mileage rate, you must have records of business versus personal miles driven.   If you use actual expenses, you must have records of all expenses and must allocate those between business and personal use.

Standard Mileage vs. Actual Expenses   @wgfpd154

[wgfpd154]

Yes, both vehicles are listed with dates used and mileage for each. One was used for the first 3 months of the year, and the second vehicle (new) was used for 7 months of the year. But when I go to claim the actual expenses on the new one it just keeps adding both deductions together. I guess I will just have to take the mileage deduction and hope for the best.

[DawnC]

You should be able to claim the actual expenses on the new vehicle.  Carefully go back through the interview for the new car completely and then review your schedule C.   As I said earlier, the mileage will be listed on the worksheet as it is needed to calculate the percentage the vehicle was used in business.   If you took the standard on the old car, you should see the mileage deduction, but only for the number of miles your drove that car.   The newer car's (if you select actual) mileage should only be on the worksheet and those miles should not be included in your mileage deduction.  Instead, you should see the depreciation for that vehicle and a corresponding depreciation deduction on Form 4562.   @wgfpd154

[wgfpd154]

It begins with telling me that due to my mileage, I will get a $14657 dollar deduction. Then I click that I wish to input actual expenses instead. So, next page I entered actual expenses of $5258 and hit continue.

Now it states I will have a $20,017 deduction instead. It is adding the two together.  I don't know what to do to fix it.

[DaveF1006]

Yes, I have never seen these two values added together. If you wish to claim actual expenses, try to delete all of the mileage information you recorded and see if this will eliminate both totals being recorded.

[wgfpd154]

From what I am seeing on the help section, the second page is for "adding" the 2nd an 3rd bullets in this list, which is why it is combining them. It is probably just not giving me the option to fill out the form needed for the lower bulleted list below, because I am not seeing any box or place to put depreciation where I am being redirected to on the 2nd page.

How was this calculated?

Standard mileage deduction calculation

If you used the standard mileage deduction, your vehicle deduction includes:

• The miles you drove for work multiplied by the standard mileage rate of 57.5 cents per mile
• Any parking, toll, and transportation fees you included, dollar for dollar
• Any property taxes or interest you paid on your vehicle, subject to your business use. For example, if 50% of the total miles you drove this year were for work, 50% of your property taxes and interest paid on your vehicle will be included.

Actual expenses deduction calculation

If you used the actual expenses method, your vehicle deduction includes:

• Your vehicle expenses (gas, insurance, repairs, etc.), subject to your business use. For example, if 50% of the total miles you drove this year were for work, 50% of your vehicle expenses are included in your deduction.
• Any property taxes or interest you paid on vehicle, subject to your business use
• Any parking, toll, and transportation fees you included, dollar for dollar
• Any depreciation

[wgfpd154]

Sorry, Yes I did try to erase the mileage and it won't allow it to move forward.

[DaveF1006]

Try this.  Can you go in and change all the totals to zero?

[DawnC]

It is a known issue........

In TurboTax Online, when you are entering your vehicle mileage in the self-employed section, the program is not allowing standard mileage rate.  We are currently working on this issue. Please sign-up here and we will email you the latest updates.

It is not allowing the standard mileage rate right now.  It is giving you actual mileage which is showing depreciation, interest, parking, tolls.  Leave the correct mileage in there and when it is fixed, go back through the entries then and you will able to fix it.   E-filing doesn't start until the 12th.  

[wgfpd154]

It is calculating the mileage deduction correct for me, it just won't take me to the page needed to itemize instead.  I had 25667 business miles and deduction given for $14759.