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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:The Digital way of working
Moderator:QUARK::LIONELON
Created:Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5321
Total number of notes:139771

2464.0. "Claim .055/mile for business travel on U.S. Tax Return?" by KAHALA::RIPLEY () Tue Apr 13 1993 12:36

    
    
    	Haven't seen this in here so thought I'd ask...
    
    	Read in the paper that IRS allows .28 per mile for travel.  Since
    	we have been at .225 since the napoleonic wars I wondered if we
    	can put in to the IRS on our income tax for .055/mile for business
    	travel?  May not sound like much but if you travel a lot then it
    	can certainly add up!  sure wish DEC would consider an increase to
    	bring them in line with the rest of the world!  any comments?
    
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
2464.1Yes you canXLIB::BRUNELLOutlanders MRO D Division Champs, AgainTue Apr 13 1993 12:438
    Yes you can claim the difference on your federal income tax.  IRS form
    21mumble, the one for business expenses lets you figure out the amount
    at .28/mile and then you deduct from that the amount DEC gave back to
    you.  the difference goes on your itemized deductions.
    
    	Dave
    	Who claimed it once when he did a lot of driving
    
2464.2as I understand itUNYEM::JAMESSTue Apr 13 1993 12:5212
    You can deduct the difference between the 28.5 that th IRS allows and
    the 22.5 that Digital allows. However you can only deduct the amount
    that exceens 2 percent of your gross adjusted income. If you GAI was
    20000 and you mileage was 10,000 the calculation would be:
    
    28.5 -22.5 x 10000 = $600.
    
    20000 x .02 = 400
    
    600 -400 = 200 deduction
    
                                  Steve J.
2464.3may be a threshhold levelMSDOA::SCHMIDTTue Apr 13 1993 13:337
    WIth some business deductions you must pass a threshhold value of
    xx% of gross earnings. I think this holds in the case of the field's
    "plan b" car plan where any expenses above the Digital reimbursement
    must be greater than some percentage of your gross.  It's very similar
    to the way the medical deductions work.
    
     Chuck
2464.4Form Number...NEWVAX::PENNINGTONAnd darkness was on the face of the Analyst...Tue Apr 13 1993 20:103
    For anyone interested in doing this, the form you need is 2106.
    
    								TomP
2464.52% thresholdTMAKXO::RCANTRELLFri Apr 16 1993 13:232
    The threshold is 2% of adjusted gross income.
    
2464.6TOOK::MORRISONBob M. LKG2-2/BB9 226-7570Sun Apr 18 1993 02:483
  Basically, Digital is saying you have to pay a fraction of your business
travel costs out of your own pocket. Most people don't do enough business
travel by personal car to incur a large out-of-pocket cost.
2464.7SOLVIT::ALLEN_RMeet the new boss, same as the old bossSun Apr 18 1993 21:493
    so just what is the avg cost per mile people are paying to use their
    own car for business?  Last I heard way back several years ago it was
    getting close to .40/mile.
2464.8HAAG::HAAGRode hard. Put up wet.Sun Apr 18 1993 22:456
    the AAA in MN calculates .37 cents per mile cost of driving ones
    vehicle. i currently refuse to drive long distances with my vehicle for
    the company. a 100 here and there is cool. 700-900 a month, compensated
    at .225/mile, nope! and i average that easily. a 300 mile roundtrip
    customer visit ain't that rare in this neck of the woods. and these
    days we mostly drive.
2464.9SOLVIT::ALLEN_RMeet the new boss, same as the old bossMon Apr 19 1993 14:192
    what's this gene, you're not willing to pay for the privilege of
    working for DEC.?
2464.1029215::RWARRENFELTZWed Apr 21 1993 15:191
    The IRS rate is .28/mile not .2850 as someone else mentioned.
2464.11HAAG::HAAGRode hard. Put up wet.Mon Apr 26 1993 01:033
    ritchie
    
    but i do pay for the priviledge of working for dec. every damn day.
2464.12TALLIS::KIRKMatt KirkMon Apr 26 1993 15:1422
re .7:

The car I just sold worked out as follows:

1988 Toyota Camry DLX, loaded - 95,400 miles

Depreciation:  		$ 8900
Maint. contract:	$  595
Other Maintenance/parts	$ 4500
			------
			$13995  	(14.6 cents/mile)

Gas			$ 3800		(3.9 cents/mile - based on $1.20 a gallon, 30 mpg)

Insurance		$ 5500		(5.7 cents/mile)

Total, 5.5 years:	$23295		(24.4 cents/mile)

(there's a rounding error here)

Costs would have been a lot higher if the engine replacement hadn't been covered 
by the maintenance contract - maintenance would have gone to $6500.
2464.13Missing costs?NOVA::SWONGERRdb Software Quality EngineeringMon Apr 26 1993 18:1616
	re -.1

	Hi Matt.

	A couple of things to add in to the cost of operating a car:

	-financing
	-tolls
	-registration and license plate fees	
	-automobile excise tax

	All of these go into the cost of operating a vehicle, and must be
	accounted for when something like business mileage reduces the life
	of the car.

	Roy
2464.14TALLIS::KIRKMatt KirkMon Apr 26 1993 21:4216
You're right on all of those except tolls, which do add to the expense of
running the car but are billed to the company in addition to mileage.

Financing can include either interest or the cost of using the money that
way (e.g. you're not getting interest on the money you shelled out for the
car).  I only financed a small part of the car and paid it off in 2 years,
so I don't know how to count that.  The interest was about $400.

Registration ran $264 over about 5 years ($150+$45*2+$24).  Excise
was probably something like $600 over 5 years (the two big ones I 
remember were $250 and $175).

So at a minimum, there's another $1300 worth of expenses - 1.3 cents per
mile. 

Matt