Deductions & credits

As a self-employed individual, you can enter either the standard mileage rate or the actual cost method, which tracks what you paid for gas and maintenance.

To use the standard mileage rate, you must keep a log of each trip with miles driven during the first year your vehicle is used for business. After that, you can either go with standard mileage or actual cost (unless you lease, in which case you must stick with standard mileage for the duration of the lease).

To enter vehicle related expenses

In the Self-Employed version of Turbo Tax with the Federal Taxes tab at the top

• Click on the Federal Taxes tab
• Click on Income and Expenses
• You may see a prompt for Self-Employment, but if not
• Click on Check for More Income and See All Income
• Scroll down to the Self-Employment section with the blue person icon
• Click on Show More
• And Start or Edit. 

The vehicle expenses have a series of questions and you can choose to use either a cost per mile or use the actual costs for the vehicle (including gas).

In the Self-Employed version of Turbo Tax with the Business tab at the top

• Click on the Business tab
• Then Continue and I'll choose what to work on
• Update your Profit or Loss from a Business
• Click on the Edit button for the name of your business
• Under Business Expenses, with the blue bar graph icon,
• click on Update or Start for Business Vehicle Expense