Deductions & credits

If you are married, You can deduct expenses for your vehicle or your spouse’s vehicle, regardless of who owns it.  It only matters what is the “primary purpose” of each trip. If the primary purpose (more than half the reason for the trip) is business, then you can deduct expenses associated with the trip.  So, if you if you drive your wife's car to the store to buy items for your business or to meet with a client, and that’s the primary purpose of his trip, you can deduct the expenses associated with the trip. It doesn’t matter who owns his car.

You can either use the standard mileage rate or the actual expenses method to deduct car expenses.  To enter in TurboTax, please use the directions below.

To input your mileage:

  • Go to My Account > Tools > Topic Search
  •  Type business expense, vehicle in the topic search (exactly as in bold) and click Go
  •  Click Edit next to your line of work.
  •  Continue through the interview until you get to the Any Vehicle Expenses or Sales? page or Vehicle Summary page.
  • Click Edit if you have already entered your vehicle.  Answer Yes if you have yet to enter our vehicle information.
  • Proceed with the interview until you get the Mileage Records for Your Vehicle page.
  • Answer Yes that you kept track of your mileage and you documented it.
  • The next page will ask how you want to enter your mileage.