[pianotech] Mileage charges - the tax angle

Israel Stein custos3 at comcast.net
Tue Apr 7 12:18:07 PDT 2009


Daniel, 

Don't fall for the nonsense of "well, you can use it as a tax deduction". The government does not reimburse you for yoru expenses - tax deductions merely mean that you don't have to pay taxes on the money that you took in but spent on "cost of doing business". The money still stays spent - you don't get it back. The only thing that matters is that when you subtract the cost of doing a particular job from what it cost you to do the job - it's still worth your while to do it. So the real costs (gas, wear-and-tear, insurance, etc) and the time spent traveling vs. what you charge is all that matters - taxes don't enter into it. With one exception - if you are trying to minimize your declared income in order to get into a lower tax bracket. I think that in our business that rarely applies (unless one has a spouse with a three-figure income...) In any case, I don't think that the occasional undercompensated trip to The Land of Enchantment (that's what it says on the license plates) is going to get you into a lower tax bracket... 

Israel Stein 
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