If you are paid to advertise for someone on your vehicle, can you use the miles for a tax write-off?

Question

Say you drive 60 miles one way to work and someone is willing to pay you to advertise on your car. Are you technically employed by them? If so, can the mileage driven, even though it's to another job, be written off as buisness miles on your vehicle? Tax returns allot a certain amount per mile, thirty-something cents last I checked. That could be a huge write off. Any tax specialists out there?

Would the case be different if you had a buisness license for an advertising buisness? As a buisness owner you can set your own hours, so if your hours of operation happened to coincide with travel time to another job, would that make it legal?

Answer 1

No. I believe that there was a Tax Court case that addressed this issue a few years ago.

The taxpayer wanted to deduct the mileage for virtually all of his mileage because he was advertising a business on the sides of his car.

The court said "No" based on the fact that main reason that he was driving (ie work, recreation, shopping) is not not deductible and just placing a advertising sign on the side of the car did not make normally non-deductible mileage deductible.

Answer 2

Having been in business enterprise for myself for a protracted time, listed right here are some innovations: do no longer participate of your place as a deduction even nonetheless you could under the tax code. it is the huge type one thank you to get audited. listed right here are some issues which you're able to do nonetheless: a million) take all your telephone invoice 2) take depreciation on any automobiles or kit you purchase (you could soak as much as $a hundred twenty five,000 under area 179 in a similar twelve months you purchase the object) or depreciate over 5 years. 3) make certain you have a superb earnings (no longer a loss) in a minimum of one in all each and every 3 years 4) you will could pay 15.3% of your earnings as Self-employment tax, yet you could deduct 50% of it on the front of your 1040 return 5) aspects to your business enterprise, place of work aspects, and so on. 6) any expenditures which you have. placed money into some sturdy, low-fee tax softare like TurboTax and it will record out all deductions for you and you will in simple terms fill them in. A small business enterprise remains the appropriate thank you to shrink taxes in case you have guts and be aggressive. sturdy success !!!!!

Answer 3

No you can not. That is explicitly forbidden by law. Additionally the money they pay you is fully taxable as ordinary income to you. The ONLY cost you can deduct is the cost of the advertising materials if YOU paid for them.