I have a question for you. Do you keep track of the business miles you drive? The miles for medical or moving? How about for the work you do for charitable organizations?
Every business owner, sales person, and in many cases employees should track their mileage and the expenses related to their vehicles. The reason being, you don’t want to leave money on the table come tax time, you want it in your pocket.
There are many options out there for tracking mileage; official mileage books can be purchased at office supply stores, little note books can be used, or my preferred method, a pocket sized weekly calendar, with space on each day to record beginning & ending mileage and destination.
You can also track your mileage in QuickBooks. This does mean staying on top of the data entry, but at the end of the year, QuickBooks can run a mileage report (for each vehicle if you have more than one) so there is no need to spend and hour or two adding up every trip.
You should also keep all your receipts for expenses related to your vehicle. Maintenance, tolls, registration, repairs, etc., and at the end of the year, have your accountant calculate your deduction using both the standard mileage reimbursement and the actual expenses method to determine which is the more advantageous way. The IRS has announced the 2011 standard mileage rates as 51 cents per mile for business miles driven, 19 cents for medical or moving miles driven, and 14 cents for service to charitable organizations miles driven.
So and extra minute in the car at the beginning & end of each trip could add up to a lot more in tax savings.