In the summer of 2019, I started my business and began using my really old personal car for business purposes. I racked up 1464 business miles (16.58 percent of my total miles driven with it for 2019), before it started having major problems. I junked the car for about $125 in November. When I put it into service, it was worth about $1000.
So I selected to take the standard mileage (58 cents per mile in 2019). Then TurboTax had me report the business portion of the sales price (125 *.1658 = $21). It then said I have a gain on the sale of business property which I understand to be correct since:
$1000 * .1658 = $165.80 business worth when put into service
But here I am taking deprecation via the standard mileage (26 cents per mile) totaling to 1468 * .26 = $380.64 which already exceeds what it was worth when I converted it to a business asset.
I guess my question is, since the deprecation alone (before even considering the sales price) exceeds its worth should I not be able to claim the mileage in the first place?
TurboTax did let me take the mileage though, I'm just confused why. Also, while I reported the business portion of the sale, the instructions said to include the personal portion elsewhere. But for the personal portion of the sale, would it not be a loss? If I used it 83.42% of the time for personal use in 2019, it was worth 1000 * .8342 = $834.20 when in service and I sold it for 125 * .8342 = 104.28.. without thinking of deprecation.. or does it not work that way? Am I just required to report the full amount since it was part business sale? Thanks for any help!
