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Taxi cost Tax write-offs
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Taxi cost Tax write-offs
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Taxi cost Tax write-offs
It's an strange situation but very common. The miles you drive or the expenses you pay Uber for your job and related expenses do qualify. Unfortunately, there can be any number of reasons why it doesn't show up on your Schedule A (Itemized Deductions) or affect your bottom line.
One common reason is that your total itemized deductions (Property Tax, Mortgage Interest, Charitable Donations and State Income Tax) don't add up to more than the standard deduction for your filing status. Such itemized deductions are not added on to a standard deduction, but used instead. The IRS doesn't let you use both.
TurboTax figures the deduction that's best for you. More info about your situation would be needed to tell you the actual reason.
You can see the different standard deductions below depending on your filing status.
Example about taking mileage for work, but you can substitute your Uber fees:
Simply using 10,000 miles at the standard mileage rate of .54/miles (2016) would equal a $5,400 deduction. Unfortunately, you must reduce this (combined with other employment expenses such as cell phone, office supplies, etc.) by 2% of your AGI (Line 37, 1040). With a $50,000 income, you would have to take $1,000 (50,000 x 2%) off of the $5,400, leaving you with $4,400 This can seriously reduce your deduction depending on your AGI.
In this example, you would be better off with a $6,300 standard deduction (Single), than $4,400 itemized deduction. Understand that there are more itemized deductions that you're allowed, but this is a simple example showing how sometimes it doesn't help.
Here are the standard deduction amounts for 2016. (Your itemized deductions need to exceed this number in order for them to help you and trigger a Schedule A on your return.)
Filing Status Standard Deduction
Single $6,300
Married Filing Jointly $12,600
Married Filing Separately $6,300
Head of Household $9,300
Qualifying Widow(er) $12,600
This may help you in determining what's deductible mileage (whether you drive or take Uber):
- Your trip between your home and your regular or main job is never deductible.
- A trip between your home and temporary work location is deductible if your main job is at another location.
- Your commute between home and second job is never deductible on a day off from your main job.
- Your trip between your regular job and temporary job is always deductible.
- Your trips between your main and second job are deductible.
- Your trips between temporary work locations and a second job.
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