It depends. If you use your car strictly for commuting to and from work, it is not deductible. If you use it for work related reasons, you have the choice of taking the standard mileage deduction or you may take actual expenses. You can't take both. If this is the first year you are placing the car in service, the choice is yours.
Choosing the standard mileage rate. If you want to use the standard mileage rate for a car you own, you must choose to use it in the first year the car is available for use in your business. Then, in later years, you can choose to use either the standard mileage rate or actual expenses.
Choosing Actual Expenses
It is based on the expenses you actually incur in the operation of your vehicle. It includes things like:
- gas purchases
- repairs
- oil changes
- tire purchases
- car washes
- insurance
- and even vehicle depreciation
However, you can only claim the percentage of expenses that apply to the business use of your vehicle. To compute this, you must know how many miles you drove for business purposes and how much you drove for personal reasons.
TurboTax will walk your through this method.
