Schedule E Travel and Auto Deductions

[khopper]

Vacation/Rental Property.  We drove down to work on the vacation rental condo, 2138 miles round trip, so I plan to use the mileage auto expense and have prorated it using the same ratio as the overall personal use / days rented ratio (11 / 208), or 94.7%.  For that specific trip I declared 11 personal days out of 30 days stayed, the other 19 days working on cleaning and repairs/maintenance.  Is my declaration sound at 94.7%, or should I use a 19/30 ratio instead, or some other method for the mileage.  And what about hotels, two nights, one night on the way down, one night on the way back?  And meal expenses?  And how to prorate?  The instructions don't seem very thorough.

[AnnetteB6 · Accepted solution]

For the mileage, you can claim the round trip total as 'business' miles since you would have to drive the whole distance in order to work on the property.  Any miles that were driven during the time you were at the property would be prorated with the 19/30 ratio.  

The hotel stays and meal expenses would be prorated with the 19/30 ratio to be conservative.