Mileage and travel

[magicman]

When tracking mileage, does the vehicle have to be mine? Right now, I use my parents cars, whichever one is available.

Am I required to track mileage? Can I wait until I get my own car?

[Patrysha]

I think if it's not your car then you can't claim mileage (unless you are responsible for the maintenance & upkeep and gas and insurance and so on. I'm sure someone will correct me on that if I'm wrong.

However, I do think it would be a good idea to keep track of mileage for your own sake even if it's not deductible. One to get in the habit of it...it can take a while to remember to do so on every trip you take for business when you use the car for both business and personal use. Can be aggravating to get a routine down where it's not forgotten (or maybe that was just scatterbrained me!).

The second reason is that it can be helpful to have the records when you do get your own vehicle so you can give a fairly accurate guess to the insurance people when they ask all those stinky questions about how often you use it for business and what's the percentage of business vs. personal use. I had no idea what to say to those when I got my first car and was starting a commission based job that involved using my own car for work. (Bought the car the Saturday before starting the job because we had been a one vehicle family up until then...and in truth a one driver family until the spring of that year)

[magicman]

Okay, thanks!

[Evan]

You can deduct the mileage if you keep track of it. Otherwise, don't deduct it. Presumably you contribute something to the maintenance of the car -- whether it is the car insurance (you do add to the cost), gasoline, etc.

If you don't want to deduct it, by all means you don't have to. The IRS loves people who understate their expenses because it's too complicated for them to figure out.