Business Miles

[Accutax Corp]

Can a S Corp take business mile deduction like a Schedule C business?

[Bees Knees]

No

From TTB page 10-5

Did You Know? The standard mileage rate method cannot be used
by corporations. Only self-employed individuals (including partners in a
partnership) and employees may use the standard mileage rate method.
(Rev. Proc. 64-10)

[Jiggers]

S-Corp Business Mileage

Can a S Corp take business mile deduction like a Schedule C business?

Only under an accountable plan, and only if the payment is actually made.

You can't just book a mileage amount like a Schedule C taxpayer. What would be the offsetting entry?

[BOB W]

Only under an accountable plan, and only if the payment is actually made.

You can't just book a mileage amount like a Schedule C taxpayer. What would be the offsetting entry?

A charge against previous Net Profit Distribution" ?????? Isn't an Officer considered an employee!

[JohnH]

What about an offsetting entry in an officer/shareholder loan account or a Due To/From account for the officer/shareholder? As long as the in & out transactions for this account are under $10K net, it should be fine. Not a best practice, but OK in a pinch.

[Bees Knees]

The issue is whether the S corporation can use the standard mileage rate. Not whether the officer/shareholder/employee can use the standard mileage rate. According to the Rev. Proc. cited in TTB, only employees, self-employeds, and partners of partnerships can use the standard mileage rate. Every other taxpayer must use actual expenses.

[Nashville]

Vehicle insurance?

An S corp cannot use mileage rate for its own vehicles. And it really shouldn't.

However, cannot an S corp have an "accountable plan?" And reimburse their drivers at the SMR so long as the drivers are using their own vehicles? This strays from the original question, but I have a few corporations who reimburse their owners for personal mileage on trip reports, and want to make sure this can be done with IRS blessings [sic].

Where I live, all the large auto insurers (State Farm, Allstate, Farm Bureau, etc.) refuse to cover corporate-owned vehicles under their standard policies. They have affiliates who will write corporate insurance. To be insured under a corporate policy, the premiums are double-and-triple what they would be for an individual policy. Thus, we have small business owners who refuse to title their vehicle to their corporations.

If the corporation is paying ACTUAL expenses such as gasoline and repairs for a vehicle not owned by the corporation, are these expenses deductible? I would think so, except I doubt the corporation could deduct depreciation (since they don't own the vehicle), or the insurance expense under the circumstances described above...

[David1980]

Depends. Who owns the vehicle?

Usually by the time they're getting taxes done the vehicle is already owned. If it's owned in the name of the S-corp then you aren't reimbursing the employees for use of the vehicle because the corporation owns the vehicle.