Mileage For Motorcycle

[gman]

Police does funeral escort on the side. Can he take the smr for motorcycle?

[ChEAr$]

Police does funeral escort on the side. Can he take the smr for motorcycle?

Is the motorcycle not police property?

[erchess]

Interesting

Could the motorcycle be police property which the officer uses at some personal cost for non police business? To my mind there can be no deduction of a cost not paid by the taxpayer and I know that's what Harlan is driving at.

[ToledoEd]

The motorcycle may not belong to the police department. I have known of local officers that have personally owned full dress police motorcycles that they use as an auxiallary for the local police when a motorcycle is needed, such as funerals and dignitary escorts.

See taxmandan answer on SMR and motorcycles.

But the question would be was the office on duty and required to use his personal vehicle?

If he meets the business use test, he would have to use actual costs.

[taxmandan]

You might check out Pub. 463, Section 4 about what vehicles are eligible to claim car expenses. Page 17, the definition of car does not include motorcycles for depreciation. "A car is any four-wheeled vehicle made primarily for use on public streets, roads, and highways." So no depreciation and that sounds like no smr either. Since depreciation is part of the calculated smr, I can't see how a motorcycle qualifies for the car expense deduction.

[ToledoEd]

Taxmandan is correct, SMR does apply to 4 wheel vehicles. I have never had anyone try to claim mileage on a motorcycle so I had nver looked at that. I was trying to answer the other part of the question.

[erchess]

That makes sense to me

as long as the taxpayer can deduct actual demonstrable out of pocket costs for riding a bike in a funeral when off duty and paid extra taxable dollars for riding. I can see where going as far as claiming the costs of driving a four wheel vehicle the same distance would be over reaching.