accounting for Mileage

[gts1330]

Sole Prop. uses a vehicle exclusively for business purposes. He has 3 other vehicles that are available and used for personal use.

Does he need to keep a journal and account for each trip/mile used for business reasons? OR, can he just record the total milleage used for the year without detailing each trip since all miles are business miles and uses other available vehicles for personal use?

Thank you

[dyne]

He MUST keep a log of business miles and total miles driven during the year according to
IRS rules. It is almost impossible to have NO personal use of a car unless he drives
a different car to work and back every day. IRS will disallow entirely a mileage deduction
where no log kept.

[gts1330]

He MUST keep a log of business miles and total miles driven during the year according to
IRS rules. It is almost impossible to have NO personal use of a car unless he drives
a different car to work and back every day. IRS will disallow entirely a mileage deduction
where no log kept.

Thank you for your reply.

I should have mentioned he works from a home based office.

[JON]

The new phrase

for the IRS is contemporary(sp) kept records. You can summarrize, but they ask for the records kept on a day to day basis as back up. They may test to see if it matches a summary, but they will not accept it as the proof. The IRS received a huge budget increase for AUDITING (under Bush) the reason was it showed for every $1 increase in their budget they would get the government back $4. Supposedly, the IRS has said on the side for every $1 they will get a return of double digits. Now they are out to prove they can close the "tax gap". Obviously, they are not on a people pleasing tour, and they should not be. They have gone after returns with Cs more than anything and are still trying to find totally unreported areas, but it means a lot more audits for all of us to make money on.