Are you missing out on driving expenses you could be deducting from your taxes? In Part 1 of this series, we differentiated between commuting and types of travel which are tax deductible for professional musicians. Now, in Part 2, we will consider which will maximize your tax deduction: using the IRS Standard Mileage Rate or the Actual Cost method.
The Standard Mileage Rate is used most often by musicians because of its ease and simplicity. Each year, the IRS sets a rate which is supposed to reflect the current costs of driving a car. For 2016, the rate is 54 cents per mile. Is this a good rate or a bad rate? There’s no way to know the answer to that question, because it will vary from situation to situation and person to person. For some people 54 cents will be more than their actual costs. For many others, however, 54 cents doesn’t even come close to covering the actual costs you have in operating your car for business purposes.
The IRS doesn’t care which method you use, as long as you can document your expenses. In fact, in Publication 463 “Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses”, the IRS shares this tip: “If you qualify to use both methods, you may want to figure your deduction both ways to see which gives you a larger deduction.” But very few musicians actually bother to do this. Most just use the Standard Rate, which could be less than your actual costs by thousands of dollars a year.
The Actual Cost method means that you can deduct all of your car expenses, including not only gasoline, but also depreciation (if owned), lease payments (if leased), registration fees, oil changes, tires, repairs, insurance, garage rent, tolls, and parking costs. If you use your car for both personal and business use, than you will calculate the percentage of business miles to your total miles driven that year. If 80% of your miles are for business, then 80% of these actual costs are tax deductible.
Gas is almost never your largest expense as a car owner. At 25 mpg, driving 10,000 miles a year costs only $900 at today’s price of $2.25 for gas. You probably pay more for insurance than gas. Your largest expense is almost always depreciation. A car generally loses at least 50% of its value in 5 years, but the IRS may allow you to depreciate your vehicle even faster than this. I think a lot of tax payers are scared away from using the Actual Cost method because of the complexity of depreciation.
There are a number of depreciation methods that the IRS uses, including Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS), straight-line, and section 179. It’s beyond the scope of this article to define these, but suffice it to say that a CPA will understand these, and frankly, so will most tax software, and guide you to the correct method.
Your actual costs might look something like this:
- Depreciation $3050
- Insurance $1622
- Gasoline $900
- Registration $73
- Oil Changes $97
- Repairs $388
- Tolls $526
Total Actual Costs: $6,656. If you drove 10,000 business miles, then you could choose between a $5,400 deduction using the Standard Mileage Rate, or a $6,656 deduction using your Actual Costs. In this case, using the standard rate would mean that you missed out on $1,256 in additional deductions that you could have claimed.
In general, if you have high fixed costs like depreciation or insurance, and average or low miles, you will probably be better off with actual cost. The same is true for years when you have expensive repairs. The Standard Mileage Rate may be higher when you drive a ton of miles, or if your fixed and operating costs are low.
One of the most effective ways to use the Actual Cost method is by using one car exclusively for business, so you can deduct 100% of the costs. How to do this? If you are married or have a partner, and your spouse has also has a car, use that car for personal uses like getting groceries. This is important, because if you claim a vehicle is 100% used for business, one of the first things the IRS will ask you is if you have another vehicle available for personal use. And the answer had better be yes.
If you do end up using the Standard Mileage Rate, please note that you can also deduct any tolls and parking costs for your eligible business driving. A lot of musicians miss this one. Here in DFW, it seems like all the highway construction of the past 15 years has been to build toll roads, so we are paying tolls more frequently and in larger dollar amounts to get to gigs. Download your Tolltag statement, compare it to your datebook and highlight the trips you made for business each month. Or if you do use one car 100% for business, you can simply deduct all the tolls for that vehicle.
Lastly, if you are self-employed, you can deduct any interest you pay on a car loan, in the percentage of miles that you use the car for business. However, if you are a W-2 employee, you cannot deduct the interest, even if you use the car 100% for business.
There are a lot better uses for your hard earned money than paying taxes. That’s why I want musicians to use every available legal tax deduction to minimize your tax bill each year and keep more of your income in your pocket. Being a musician is a passion, but it also is a business, which means keeping good records and being smart about taking whatever tax deductions are allowed. The mileage deduction is a big one for many musicians.
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