Ryan Vaughn breaks down two ways to deduct vehicle costs: actual expenses or standard mileage. Either way, you can only deduct the business-use percentage, which means you have to track mileage. The IRS won't let you claim anything without those records.
Can I deduct my car for taxes? And if I can deduct it, how do I actually do that? The IRS has 2 ways in which you are able to write off vehicle use in your business. Either actual expenses, or the other option they give you is just a simple calculation of a mileage deduction. Now, when I say both ways, sometimes clients will come and say, well, I don't want to track my own mileage. That sounds like a pain in the butt. Unfortunately, the IRS allows you to take the business use percentage of your actual expenses. Just like they let you claim only business miles and not all your miles, they only let you take actual expenses to the extent of the business use percentage. Well, how do you calculate business use percentage? You track mileage. So under either scenario, I have to track my miles if I want to write off my vehicle on my tax return.
