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Question

I was required to use my own vehicle for work and put over 20,000 miles on it. I can claim them along with mile expenses for my car, such as gas for work and oil changes and tires right??? Also if I was involved in a car accident while at work Can I claim my deductable?????

Answer 1

You might be able to claim the use of your car for business use if it's for the benefit of your employer.

You can keep track of all costs and apportion them for deductible business use and nondeductible personal use.

Alternatively you can use the standard mileage rate of 44.5 cents per mile.

In either case, the expenses claimed must be reduced by any reimbursements from your employer.

Keep in mind that commuting costs are never deductible. If you go directly from home to a job site and return directly home from the job site, those are nondeductible commuting miles regardless of how far the trip is.

Employee business expenses are calculated on Form 2106 and then claimed as a miscellaneous deduction subject to the 2% rule on Schedule A.

The deductible on your auto insurance can be claimed as a casualty loss but the rules are a bit complicated. The portion of the loss attributable to your business use is subject to the 2% rule. The portion attributable to your personal use is subject to a $100 reduction plus a further reduction equal to 10% of your AGI. Unless your deductible was extremely high that will probably wipe out any deduction for the loss.

Answer 2

If you used your car for business purposes related to your job, you can either claim a deduction for your business use mileage based on the standard mileage rate OR your actual expenses. You have to choose one or the other. Also, you can use actual expenses one year and switch to standard mileage rate the following year, but you CANNOT switch from standard mileage rate to actual expenses. Actual expenses may include gas, maintenance, and repairs.

You do have to reduce your expenses/standard mileage amount by the amount of reimbursement your employer gave you, if your employer reimbursed you for using your car.

ALSO, mileage related to your normal travel to and from work is considered commuting miles and DOES NOT count towards business miles.

Finally, if your auto expenses is related to your employment (and not a self employment business), then it is deductible as an employee business expense, which is claimed on Schedule A as a miscellaneous itemized deduction. This means that you get no benefit for the deduction unless you are itemizing (your itemized deductions exceeds your standard deduction). Also, miscellaneous itemized deductions are limited to the amount in excess of 2% of your adjusted gross income.

Regarding the deductible for the car accident, you should claim that as a repair expense for actual expenses for business use of your vehicle. The only other way to claim such a loss would be as a casualty or theft loss. Casualty and theft losses are limited to your out of pocket costs (i.e. your deductible), and it is further limited by a $100 floor amount per incident, AND 10% of your adjusted gross income. Also, casualty and theft losses are also claimed as itemized deductions. For example, if your deductible is $500, then subtracting the floor amount, only $400 can be claimed for the casualty/theft loss. If your adjusted gross income is more than $4,000, then considering the limit (10% of $4,000), none of the casualty loss would be deductible.

Answer 3

yes, if you used your car for business purposes you can deduct these expenses in one of two ways.

1. Standard Mileage Rate
you can use the standard 2006 irs mileage rate of 44.5 cents per business mile driven. for example, if you drove 20,000 BUSINESS miles, you'd take a deduction of $8,900 (20,000 * .445). this rate takes into consideration gas, insurance, repairs, depreciation, etc. and you can NOT deduct your actual expenses.

or

2. Actual Expenses
figure out the exact amounts paid for gas, insurance, repairs and maintenance, etc. on your car. you also need to know how many business miles you drove, and how many miles in total were driven, assuming you used this car for personal use too.
come up with a business % use of your car by dividing business miles by total miles. for example, if you drove your car a total mileage of 30,000 and 20,000 miles were for business, then your business use % would be 66% (20,000/30,000). this means that you can deduct 66% of your auto expenses. you would multiply your total auto expenses by 66% and put this on your tax return. you'd also be able to deduct 66% of any depreciation allowed. i think the depreciation limit for the first year is $2,960, so you would multiply your business use % by this amount.