How many miles? (Car version)

[mick]

Originally Posted by SAK

I would like to know. I have a tax professional, I will have to check with him about deducting mileage.

Thanks.

IRS allows a mileage allowance. Last year the allowance for the first part of the year was different from the allowance the last half of the year.

You multiply the allowance x the miles, and that becomes an expense to be used against your total income, which may include money that you were paid for gas.

A carpenter.

I worked at an agency where I was given a couple of choices as to my employement status in regards to how I wanted my benefits and reimbursements handled (and this choice came after I had been working there for about 9 months and they were giving everyone the screwover on changing their salaries to hourly wages). Being an employee meant full benefits at no cost, and my mileage being reimbursed only from the office to the client's home or meeting place. Any time I wanted to go from home to the client's home/meeting place, it would not be reimbursed because it was "commuting" miles. However, if I had decided to work as an independent contractor with this agency, I would get benefits only to have to pay for them (with no wage offset to make up for it) and ALL my mileage would be reimbursed regardless of where I started from. Of course, I stayed on as an employee, but how much easier it would have been to become an independent contractor there. But the mileage thing stuck in my head, and when it comes to officiating miles, I knew what I could claim.

[SAK]

that does make a lot of sense.

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by mick

IRS allows a mileage allowance. Last year the allowance for the first part of the year was different from the allowance the last half of the year.

I just finished working on my 2008 officiating earnings and expenses. In 2008, the mileage rate before July 1 is $0.505 / mile. July 1 and beyond it is $0.585 / mile.

As you can see with the mileage of some of these folks, that works out to a pretty sizeable deduction.

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by Welpe

I just finished working on my 2008 officiating earnings and expenses. In 2008, the mileage rate before July 1 is $0.505 / mile. July 1 and beyond it is $0.585 / mile.

As you can see with the mileage of some of these folks, that works out to a pretty sizeable deduction.

In my case, I was in the black for the first time in 6 years. The schools in VT re-imburse 40.5 cents per mile, but I did not want to open Pandora's Box by trying to get the remainder, so I only used miles to meetings or game sites where there was no re-imbursement such as AAU or a handful of JV games that I did.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by 26 Year Gap

In my case, I was in the black for the first time in 6 years. The schools in VT re-imburse 40.5 cents per mile, but I did not want to open Pandora's Box by trying to get the remainder, so I only used miles to meetings or game sites where there was no re-imbursement such as AAU or a handful of JV games that I did.

Why? You should be counting the mileage reimbursement as income and then taking the full deduction for the miles driven regarless of how much either is. Even if they cancel out to $0.00, they should be documented to avoid the audit bug.

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

Why? You should be counting the mileage reimbursement as income and then taking the full deduction for the miles driven regarless of how much either is. Even if they cancel out to $0.00, they should be documented to avoid the audit bug.

And sometimes, the mileage reimbursement doesn't even come close to what you can deduct, so the difference would be a deduction. For example, our football crew each chips in $5 or $10 (depending on distance) to the driver. That's $20 or $40 each time. He figures up the mileage and claims whatever wasn't reimbursed by the crew as mileage for him to deduct. We don't get mileage to any of our games around here, sigh. Maybe someday.

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

Why? You should be counting the mileage reimbursement as income and then taking the full deduction for the miles driven regarless of how much either is. Even if they cancel out to $0.00, they should be documented to avoid the audit bug.

Good idea. I will do that next year. And if I have to amend, it will be to our advantage.

[mbyron]

I keep waiting for the next "version" of this thread.

Originally Posted by Welpe

I just finished working on my 2008 officiating earnings and expenses. In 2008, the mileage rate before July 1 is $0.505 / mile. July 1 and beyond it is $0.585 / mile.

As you can see with the mileage of some of these folks, that works out to a pretty sizeable deduction.

Thanks for that info...now I can separate the miles on my spreadsheet and save me time when entering that onto my tax prep software.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by Welpe

As you can see with the mileage of some of these folks, that works out to a pretty sizeable deduction.

My deduction was a tad over $2,600 on nearly 5000 miles.

[bob jenkins]

About 8300 miles for 240 games (baseball and basketball combined; all HS or college; fewer than 30 "summer league" games)