If you're actually using TurboTax Self-Employed, you'll have to go through the business section reporting your income and expenses in that section (Schedule C).
Included therein, is Business Vehicle Expense where you will enter the costs for your car.
As shown by previous answer, this is correct:
If you're actually using TurboTax Self-Employed, you'll have to go through the business section reporting your income and expenses in that section (Schedule C).
Included therein, is Business Vehicle Expense where you will enter the costs for your car.
I just wanted to add
that you also see if you can get a larger deduction with this option"Yes, I'd like to see if my actual expenses give me a higher deduction"
.
Good luck.
yes, but...
You can use the standard mileage method. This is 65.5 cents per mile (for now) and includes all car expenses--fuel, repairs, maintenance, tires, insurance, and depreciation (which is an allowance for wear and tear based on the purchase price). The only extras you can add to the standard mileage rate are parking and tolls. You need a mileage diary showing the date, purpose, and mileage of each business trip.
Or, you can use the actual expense method. For this method, you must have a mileage diary but you must also have a record of the total number of miles driven for the year, so you can calculate the percentage of business and personal miles (total miles minus business miles equals personal miles). You must also have a record of every car expense you want to deduct--fuel, repairs, maintenance, tires, insurance, etc. You can include interest you paid, but you can't include the part of the payment that includes the purchase price. Instead, you use deprecation, which is based on the price of the car or the value of the car when you started to use it in business. If you add up all your miles, and 60% were used for business, then you can deduct 60% of your overall expenses. But you have to track every expense--if audited, you will only be given credit for expenses you can prove with reliable records.
If you are the sort of person who trades in cars in less than 5 years, the actual expense method may work for you, but it is a lot more record keeping. If you keep your cars longer, the standard mileage method usually works out better in the long run, and is less records to keep track of.