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June 4, 2019
Question

Can the gas and insurance be expensed on the S corps books for a director/officer/shareholder of the S corp who uses his personal truck for the business?

  • June 4, 2019
  • 6 replies
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The gas and insurance were paid for by S corps credit card and are expensed on the books. Is that ok for the S corp to take the deduction on the 1120S? These expenses are not included on his w-2. What if anything does the shareholder need to do on his personal tax return regarding this?

6 replies

Employee
June 4, 2019
comment deleted
Lisa995
Employee
June 4, 2019
If he's an employee and gets a W2, then the unreimbursed employee business expenses of an employee go on the Schedule A of his personal return.
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥Lisa♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
Employee
June 4, 2019
If the gas and insurance are ONLY for the business portion of the gas and insurance, yes, that would probably be deductible by the corporation.  There should be proof of the business miles/business cost of gas and insurance.

If gas and insurance for personal miles were paid by the corporation, that is not deductible by the corporation UNLESS it is added to wages.  Otherwise, that amount would probably be Distributions.

That is not the best way of doing things.   The shareholder should pay for the expenses and submit monthly expense reports to the corporation to be reimbursed for the business mileage.
Carl11_2
Employee
June 4, 2019
Basically, if you paid vehicle expenses for an employee or shareholder or officer for their personal vehicle, regardless of what that vehicle was used for, what you paid them needs to be included as taxable income on the employee's W-2 box 1, or officer's K-1.
Then the recipient of the W-2/K-1 will claim their job related vehicle expenses on their personal tax return, so as to offset the taxability of what the corporation paid them.
Critter
Employee
June 4, 2019
I highly recommend you seek qualified professional assistance to set up your books and to get educated in how to keep them.  This should not be something you have to determine or address when completing the tax return.
Employee
June 4, 2019

The S-corp can reimburse the employee expenses under an accountable plan or a non-accoutable plan.  Either way, the expenses are deductible business expenses, but the rules are different.

Under an accountable plan, the business only reimburses expenses that are proved by receipts and other documentation. The reimbursements are not taxable income to the employee and are not reported on the W-2.  The employee can't deduct the expense on their tax return since they were reimbursed tax-free.  

The business can reimburse at the IRS standard mileage rate, which includes allowances for all car expenses (wear and tear, maintenance, gas, insurance, etc.)  The proof needed then would be a mileage diary or log showing the date, business purpose of the trip, and miles driven.  The business needs to see the mileage records in a timely fashion (for example, once a month).  The business can provide reimbursements in advance of travel, but it must eventually see the records and reconcile the expense (the employee must pay back any excess).  Also note the standard mileage method only applies to passenger vehicles with a gross weight of less than 6,000 pounds. 

Or, the business can reimburse using the actual expense method.  The business would reimburse actual expenses for gas, insurance, repairs etc.  The business does not have to reimburse for every expense (you could reimburse gas and insurance and not tires and oil changes, for example) but for any expenses the business does reimburse, it must have adequate proof.  Adequate proof means you need to see all the receipts for the expenses you will cover (gas, insurance, maintenance, repairs). You also need the total vehicle mileage for the year (so you can determine the # of business miles and the # of personal miles), and a log book of all the business trips.  You compute the percentage of business miles driven out of the total and that is the percentage of expenses you can reimburse tax-free.  You can make estimated reimbursements during the year but you have to reconcile it or "true it up" at the end of the year.  (Without a complete record of all business miles and all personal miles, there is no way to prove what percent of the insurance and maintenance you should be paying.)  If the employee has expenses that were not reimbursed, they can claim them as a work expense on form 2106 as an itemized deduction subject to the 2% rule.  

You may not be keeping all the paperwork needed to document the expenses under an accountable plan.

If you use a non-accountable plan, then the business does not need to keep or see any car records.  You can reimburse any amount you want, from below the IRS standard rate, or above the IRS standard rate, or for gas and insurance but not oil changes, or anything else you want to pay for.  All the reimbursements get included in the employee's box 1 W-2 wages and are subject to income and employment tax withholding.  Then, the employee is responsible for keeping their own mileage diary and expense records, and claiming either the standard mileage rate or the actual expense method on their tax return as an itemized deduction subject to the 2% rule.  The S-corp doesn't need to know or care what the employee does with the money.

The non-accountable plan is less beneficial to the employee because of the 2% rule.  The accountable plan is more beneficial to the employee but requires that the business obtain and keep accurate records which include a diary showing the date, time and purpose of each trip (for the standard rate method), or the diary plus all expense receipts plus the total vehicle milage for the year (for the actual expense method). 

Employee
January 22, 2020

Can depreciation be included in the actual expenses method under an accountable plan?

Carl11_2
Employee
January 22, 2020

Can depreciation be included in the actual expenses method under an accountable plan?

No. Because depreciation is *NOT* a permanent deduction. All depreciation taken must be recaptured in the year the depreciable asset is sold or otherwise disposed of. That recaptured depreciation is then taxed in the year of recapture. Additionally, that recaptured depreciation adds to the bottom line AGI also, which can put one into a higher tax bracket potentially. But even if it does, recaptured depreciation itself is capped at being taxed at no more than 25%.