When you enter vehicle
expenses for any purpose (Schedule C, Schedule E, Form 2106) in your tax
return, you are asked to enter the number of miles driven for the entire year,
the number of miles driven for business purposes, and the number of commuting
miles.
These values are used to
determine how much (what percentage) your car was used for business
purposes.
The IRS expects that you
will have some records to substantiate the business use of your personal vehicle. This means that ideally you will have a log
book showing your odometer readings at the beginning and end of the year, and
your miles driven for business purposes.
If you do not have that
information, it does not necessarily mean you cannot claim the expense, but you
should be aware that it will be disallowed in the unlikely event that you are
audited and asked to provide your documentation.
That being said, you can do
your best to determine the total miles driven during the year by checking your
records such as oil changes or service records.
These would show your odometer readings.
You can also estimate your commuting miles by taking the total round
trip mileage and multiplying it by the approximate number of days that you
worked during the year.
Claiming an expense for 84
miles driven for business is not a substantial amount, so you would need to
decide if it is worth the effort to try to report these other miles as
accurately as possible. However, in the
future, keeping some sort of records is recommended.
