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Deductions & credits
You have a choice the first year (the year the business vehicle is placed in service) to use Actual Expenses or Standard Mileage.
If you choose Actual Expenses the first year, you no longer have an option to use Standard Mileage after that.
You always need to track actual expenses for all business expenses. The same is true for Income, the IRS does not expect you to report a "Ballpark" figure when reporting Schedule C.
I know very few areas where the IRS allows "estimates" to be made.
Keep a notebook in the vehicle.
DIY maintenance is on you, you can't deduct your own personal labor as a business expense, although you can expense parts.
Fees are usually expenses for the year the fee is paid.
If keeping track of actual expenses is too hard, use the Standard Mileage Rate.
You can amend prior returns if the addition of the vehicle expenses will result in additional refunds.
Going forward, you need to keep track of the mileage and depreciation you take because there may be "Depreciation Recapture" when you sell the vehicle or the business use drops to less than 50%.
“To use the actual expense method, you must determine what it actually costs to operate the car for the portion of the overall use of the car that's business use. Include gas, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, registration fees, licenses, and depreciation (or lease payments) attributable to the portion of the total miles driven that are business miles.”
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