Car and Truck Expenses Worksheet Line 9

[PCF]

This should be a simple calculated percentage, but it has the wrong number.  Should/can I just override this with the correct answer?  Thanks.

[MarilynG1]

Yes, you are correct that the % of Business Use is based on the Business Miles divided by the Total Miles. 

However, if you indicated that you starting using the vehicle for business in 2019,  the % will change. 

You can Override an amount, but this will prevent you from Efiling.

[pegs2]

Why/how does the percentage change if you start using the car this year?

[DaveF1006]

i think what they mean by a percentage change is the amount of time in 2019 that the car was used for business. For an example, if the car was first used on July 1, the the % of business use would be the miles you used the car for business divided by total mileage driven during that six-month period of time (7/01-12/31).

[MarJacob]

Is the Car and Truck Expenses Worksheet, Part I- Vehicle Information, Line 9 (Percent of business use) calculated correctly in turbo tax? When I calculate it, Line 6 divided by line 5c, it comes out to a different percentage. Eg. 2128 divide by 3864 equals 55.07%, verse turbo tax, equaling 32.13%? Am I calculating it wrong?

[blueridge9999]

I believe there is an error in this formula. It seems to be taking the miles driven for business divided by total miles and then multiplying that by the fraction of the year the vehicle was used. So if the vehicle was bought or sold in a given year and only used for 6 months out of the year, it would take the business use to total use fraction and multiply it by 0.5. This seems to be a persistent error that hasn't been corrected and is continuing into the current version. 

[AnnetteB6]

Here is the definition for how line 9 percentage of business use is calculated on the Car and Truck Expenses Worksheet:

The program divides lines 6 by line 5c (then multiplies the result by line 9b divided by 12 months, if line 10b has an entry).

If you have indicated that you do not have a record of the personal mileage for the year, then there is a special allocation that will reduce the percent of business use as described here:

Check the appropriate box to indicate whether or not you have records for the full tax year for any personal miles driven. When no records exist for your personal mileage, a special allocation based on number of months of business use is required to determine your business use percentage. TurboTax automatically computes the number of months of business use and the special allocation when you check "No" here.

@blueridge9999

[blueridge9999]

Perfect! Mystery solved. Thanks very much for your help with this.