How Do You Use Your Car?

To take a business deduction for the use of a car, the taxpayer must determine whether the use was business or personal. If the answer is personal, no deduction is allowed on your tax return. Personal use includes commuting - driving from your home to your regular place of work.

A deduction may be allowed if a taxpayer has multiple jobs or businesses. Driving from home to "business one" is commuting, but driving from "business one" directly to "business two" is deductible. Also, taxpayers are usually allowed to deduct transportation costs for going from their home to a temporary workplace regardless of the distance.

Deductible car expense can include the cost of:

• Traveling from one workplace to another.


• Making business trips to visit customers or attend business meetings away from your regular workplace.


• Going to temporary workplaces.

To claim the deduction, taxpayers must keep adequate records such as a written travel log with complete and accurate mileage records for each business use of their car. If they are unable to produce a clear and accurate business mileage record, the IRS may disallow the deduction.

And finally, remember that if you are reimbursed for your mileage from the employer, you cannot claim the mileage deduction.