gasmileagecalculators.com » irs mileage rate http://gasmileagecalculators.com Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:31:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 IRS mileage rate lowered for 2009 http://gasmileagecalculators.com/%categoryname%/irs-mileage-rate-lowered-for-2009 http://gasmileagecalculators.com/%categoryname%/irs-mileage-rate-lowered-for-2009#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:54:20 +0000 http://www.gasmileagecalculators.com/?p=65 Beginning Jan. 1, the IRS mileage reimbursement rates are going down, but they will still be 10% higher than they were last year. The new rates are:

The IRS raised the rates mid-year from 50.5 cents per mile for business travel, to 58.5 cents. The special adjustment came on the heels of a swift gas price run up that saw prices top $4.20 on a national average. The rate for charitable purposes is set by law and is unchanged from 2008.

The IRS uses an annual study by Wisconsin-based Runzheimer International to determine their reimbursement rate. The study tracks the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile. The IRS mileage rate is in turn used by many companies to set their employee mileage reimbursement rate.

]]> http://gasmileagecalculators.com/%categoryname%/irs-mileage-rate-lowered-for-2009/feed 0 IRS Mileage Rate For 2008 Highest Ever http://gasmileagecalculators.com/%categoryname%/irs-mileage-rate-for-2008-highest-ever http://gasmileagecalculators.com/%categoryname%/irs-mileage-rate-for-2008-highest-ever#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:20:38 +0000 http://www.gasmileagecalculators.com/?p=45 July 1, 2008, the IRS mileage allowance was raised. From January 1- June 30, the rate was 50.5 cents per mile. The new rate, effective from July 1 through December 31, 2008, is 58.5 cents per mile. That means the effective IRS mileage rate for 2008 you can claim when you file is 54.5 cents per mile if you have accurately recorded your business mileage for the whole year.

Mileage rates for medical and moving related driving were raised to 27 cents per mile for July 1- December 31, 2008. The charitable driving reimbursement rate is set by law and remains 14 cents per mile.

The business mileage reimbursement rate is used to calculate the deductible costs of operating a vehicle for business. With nearly 3/4 of the year gone, now is the time to plan your business tax filing and make sure you have the proper documentation to claim any mileage reimbursement on your taxes. At this point in the year, it may still be possible to reconstruct daily travel logs and fill in many of the gaps you may have in your manually kept records. In years past the IRS has allowed mileage estimates to slide by, but they are cracking down as gas prices continue to rise and more people take advantage of the allowance.

“You cannot deduct amounts that you approximate or estimate,” they say in IRS Publication 463, “How to prove Expenses.” In order to utilize the standard business mileage rate deduction, the IRS requires mileage records to substantiate the deduction. An IRS compliant mileage log would include your destination, miles traveled, and business purpose. While paper logs are still being accepted, IRS Publication 463 also says, “If you prepare a record in a computer memory device with the aid of a logging program, it is considered an adequate record.”

gps enabled mileage loggerWe’ve found a GPS enabled device that you simply plug in to your dashboard and let run. It automatically logs all the miles you drive. You can also manually turn it off and on for short legs of a trip you want to record individually or to exclude that vacation trip you took. You can also make all the notes you want on the program.

How does it work? As you drive, the device keeps track of your changing location and counts your mileage as you go. At the end of your trip, the unit sends your start and end locations and mileage over its wireless data network. The device determines the street address of these locations and places all data for this trip into a record for you.

You can access your mileage records online, anytime. You can also generate reports covering any date period you want and export your data to a spreadsheet program any time you want. This means the mileage logger can be used to record your mileage for business expense reimbursements through your company as well.

This is also a great device for businesses. Fleet management is not something you want to spend a lot of time on, but even a few “hazy” expense report claims can add up to a huge cash outlay each month.  Invoicing, emergency response, and vehicle tracking are also easier when done automatically by the mileage logger.

Those are the business features, but there are a couple more that appealed to me personally. For just $1 a month more, I can get a “locator” service that will tell me at all times where my car is. As a single parent of teenage drivers, I hope I never feel the need to use this service, but it is nice to know it’s there in an emergency. I could also check anytime I wanted (very easily) to see if the kids really did go where they said they were going…. Not that I ever would. But, again, it’s kind of nice to know that I could if I wanted to.

]]> http://gasmileagecalculators.com/%categoryname%/irs-mileage-rate-for-2008-highest-ever/feed 0 Mileage Calculators for Tax Purposes http://gasmileagecalculators.com/%categoryname%/where-would-i-find-the-federal-rate-of-mileage-reimbursement-for-health-care-workers-in-louisiana http://gasmileagecalculators.com/%categoryname%/where-would-i-find-the-federal-rate-of-mileage-reimbursement-for-health-care-workers-in-louisiana#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:00:59 +0000 http://www.gasmileagecalculators.com/car-mileage/where-would-i-find-the-federal-rate-of-mileage-reimbursement-for-health-care-workers-in-louisiana Q. Where would i find the federal rate of mileage reimbursement for health care workers in my state?

We get asked questions like this quite a bit. I usually like to refer people to the IRS website and suggest that they do a search for their state and “mileage reimbursement.”  That’s because I’m neither a lawyer or a tax advisor.  (There, disclaimer out of the way.)

Our site is devoted to helping you figure out what your mileage is today so you can begin to improve it for tomorrow. While recouping every little bit you can from what you spend at the pump is important, we recognize that it’s just as hard and necessary to keep up with the IRS allowances when you’re spending your tax refund at the pump.  And, since those allowances are what many employers base their reimbursement rules on, you’re doubly stuck for a place and way to keep on top of it all.

We’ll try to help by making sure that we devote at least one post to this topic every year, more if the irs mileage rate or if businesses start using another standard for mileage reimbursement.  So don’t be alarmed if you see the same post titles popping up.  We haven’t started to stutter.

Anyway, here’s what we found out to answer this reader’s question:

The numbers we found were for tax year 2007. They were 48.5 cents per mile for 2007 for business, 20 cents per mile for medical or moving, and 14 cents per mile for charity work. I believe if you’re ever audited after claiming business miles, you need to show them a log of the miles. I’m not sure how the IRS knows whether the mileage was for medical, moving or charity.

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