If you use your car, truck or SUV for business purposes, be sure to take your vehicle in for service as close as possible to year-end. The reason is, the receipt for the service will have your vehicle mileage recorded by this third-party.
Having the third-party attestation to the mileage at a fixed date in time is the best kind of record or evidence to have in a potential IRS or State Department of Revenue audit.
The mileage deduction can be one of the biggest tax deductions many self-employed individuals have.
This tip is important! Many taxpayers don't understand that even if they are counting actual expenses rather than claiming the standard mileage rate, they still have to keep track of the business and personal miles placed on the vehicle.
EXAMPLE: If you put 10,000 miles on your truck in the tax year and 9,000 of those miles were for work and 1,000 of the miles were for personal use, then your Business Percentage Use would be 90%. The 90% ratio would then be applied to all of the actual expenses.
