I have a leased vehicle, I used to travel from my home to tutoring my customers, typically at the library. Can I deduct mileage for these trips as a business expense?

[Cindy0H]

Yes, you can. TurboTax will ask if you lease or own the car.

If you do not own or lease the vehicle you can't use the standard mileage rate.  That's because the standard mileage rate includes an allowance for depreciation (wear and tear) and only the owner or lessor is allowed to claim that.

You have to use the actual expense method for this vehicle.  You need to add up the total expenses for the year -- gas, oil changes, tires, insurance, other maintenance (but not depreciation).  And you also need to track the miles used for work purposes and the total vehicle miles for the year (beginning and ending odometer).  You deduct the percent of actual expenses based on percent of work miles driven.  

TurboTax will do all these calculations for you.  You need to know the number of work miles driven, the number of total miles driven or the start and end odometer, and the total of all actual costs for fuel, etc.

If you have other questions about this, ask in the comment section below.

[Vincent-D]

I am with you on all of that. However after entering all my autmobile expenses such as gasoline, tyres, maintenance etc, the next Turbo Tax screen asks me for Vehicle Lease Payments and Fair Market Value of the car. HERE am I to enter the total lease payments for the the three year lease period or only for the 12 months applicable during 2018? The reason for the question is because of the way TT asks the questions, it calls for "total amount spent on vehicle lease payments and any temporary vehicle rentals