New business owner

Hi @ChevyShine ,

Congratulation on your new business! 

If you are a sole proprietorship and will be reporting your business income in your Schedule C, you can choose between two methods of reporting your vehicle expenses.

Below is summary of both methods:

Actual Expenses method - you can expense/claim expenses you actually incur while operating your vehicle for business purposes. The types of expense include:

• gas
• oil changes
• tire
• car washes
• insurances
• repair and maintenance 
• and Depreciation 

You can only expense/claim the expenses based on the percentage that apply for your business use. 

Standard Mileage method

This method you multiply your business miles  by the amount per mile allotted by the IRS. This amount might change every year so please refer to the IRS link below  for more information. 

Whichever method you decide to use, please make sure you keep records of your miles use for personal and business separately and all receipts for the related expenses. 

If your business is organize/structure as a corporation, partnership, or S-corporation, you must use the actual method to expense your vehicle use. 

Here are some more helpful links:

Maximizing Tax Deductions for the Business Use of Your Car 

Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car 

Driving Down Taxes: Auto-Related Tax Deductions 

Car and Truck Expense Deduction Reminders  

Thank you and good luck! 

Hello and thank you for your question.  I would definitley keep track of business and personal miles.  The reasoning is a decision will have to be made to use the standard mileage rate based on business miles driven or actual expenses.  As you can assume the next bit of info is to keep receipts and track actual vehicle expenses as well.  The IRS has issued guideance on mileage log standards and Intuit even has a mileage app.  I will include a link from the IRS and TurboTax that has some very good detail information.  

From IRS "Business Use of Car" 

From Turbo Tax "Business Use of Vehicles" 

Link to QuickBooks mileage tracker app