How many miles? (Car version)

26 Year Gap

SAK wrote
For some reason I thought that if you stop home you cannot not that mileage. Only if you are going from one job to another can you count the mileage. Is that true. BTW, I don't deduct my mileage. Maybe that is something I should think about doing.

And whats the deal with the allowance for the laundry??

Some have advocated drycleaning your uniform once & saving the receipt. You could consider that expense times the number of games worked as the deduction according to those advocates.

BillyMac

SAK wrote
For some reason I thought that if you stop home you cannot not that mileage. Only if you are going from one job to another can you count the mileage. Is that true. I don't deduct my mileage. Maybe that is something I should think about doing. And whats the deal with the allowance for the laundry??

I have actually heard the opposite. I've heard that you cannot count mileage from your day job to your game sites, something about "commuting" mileage. That's why, even if the school is only a few miles away from work, I always "go home to feed the cat (if you get my drift)". It's real easy to figure out my mileage. My one way mileage from home is on the Arbiter, so I just double it. In any case my accountant asks for, and uses, my round trip mileage, from home, for games, meetings, and clinics. He also allows me to declare $5.00 per week for my expenses to home launder my uniform. I'll double check with him on Sunday. It's visiting day at the prison. That reminds me. I have to buy a file and bake a cake before April 15.

26 Year Gap

BillyMac wrote
I have actually heard the opposite. I've heard that you cannot count mileage from your day job to your game sites, something about "commuting" mileage. That's why, even if the school is only a few miles away from work, I always "go home to feed the cat (if you get my drift)". In any case my accountant asks for, and uses, my round trip mileage, from home, for games, meetings, and clinics. He also allows me to declare $5.00 per week for my expenses to home launder my uniform. I'll double check with him on Sunday. It's visiting day at the prison. That reminds me. I have to buy a file and bake a cake before April 15.

So, you're filing TWICE?:eek:

SAK

BillyMac wrote
I have actually heard the opposite. I've heard that you cannot count mileage from your day job to your game sites, something about "commuting" mileage. That's why, even if the school is only a few miles away from work, I always "go home to feed the cat (if you get my drift)". It's real easy to figure out my mileage. My one way mileage from home is on the Arbiter, so I just double it. In any case my accountant asks for, and uses, my round trip mileage, from home, for games, meetings, and clinics. He also allows me to declare $5.00 per week for my expenses to home launder my uniform. I'll double check with him on Sunday. It's visiting day at the prison. That reminds me. I have to buy a file and bake a cake before April 15.

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

Thanks.

BillyMac

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

I bet that you don't have to go through a complete body cavity search to meet with your accountant. I'm getting tired explaining why I have a file in my ... never mind.

mick

SAK wrote
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.

[deleted]

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

mick wrote
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

Welpe wrote
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.

[deleted]

Welpe wrote
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

Welpe wrote
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)

SAK

Do you get to deduct round trip miles or just one way miles.

mick

SAK wrote
Do you get to deduct round trip miles or just one way miles.

Round trip.

bob jenkins

SAK wrote
Do you get to deduct round trip miles or just one way miles.

That depends. Do you go back home after the game, or just stay at the game site until it's time to leave for the next game?

JugglingReferee

bob jenkins wrote
That depends. Do you go back home after the game, or just stay at the game site until it's time to leave for the next game?

HAHA! This is the post of the month!

Camron Rust

26 Year Gap wrote
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.

[deleted]

Camron Rust wrote
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

Camron Rust wrote
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.

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