What kind of miles I can deduct on my tax return and what are the rates?

by Viktoriya Khusit | Nov 8, 2016 | Blog | www.VKconsultingllc.com

There are four major driving purposes that taxpayers can deduct miles for:

• Business
• Medical
• Moving for a job
• Charitable organization

There are two ways of deducting your car on your tax return, if you use it in connection with your business:

1. Taking an actual expenses: car payment, gas, oil change, tolls, parking, etc- this method might be beneficial if you lease a car and don’t drive to much

or

2. Take a standard mileage expenses, i.e. multiply amount of miles you drove by standard rate. For 2016 this rate went down from   57.5 cents per mile to .54 cents. This is a business rate, so any time you drive from your office to your clients offices, run business errands, going to meet with clients  you need to record miles.

Driving from your personal residence to your office does not considered business miles. Unless your primary place of work is your home and you have qualified home office in your residence, than you can start tracking your miles from your garage.

Even though you might not have a business, here is some miles you can still deduct on your tax return:

Miles you drive to have  doctor visits are deductible as well at .19 cents per mile ( down from .23 cents in 2015) and are calculated on schedule A ( Itemized deductions) and subject to 10%  AGI  (see posts about medical expenses), so if you do not Itemize, don’t waste your time tracking those miles

If you moved for your new job, miles you drove in your car are deductible as well. Rate is the same as for medical purposes and is .19 cent per mile ( see Moving Expenses)

The only rate that did not change from 2015 is rate per miles driven in service of charitable organization and is .14 cents per miles. This expense as well calculated on Schedule A- Itemized deductions.

My child wants to be an actor/model. What is next and what can I deduct on my taxes?

by Viktoriya Khusit  www.VKconsultingllc.com

You look at your child, and he/she is the most adorable human being, constantly acting as someone else, or may be really – really wants to be a movie star, so you decide to give it a shot and try to help your child become an actor. What do you do next?

If your child is a minor (under the legal age of full responsibility) you need to apply for entertainment work permit for your child. Click here to see a YouTube video that will show how to apply for 6 month entertainment work permit for your child, how to create an account, what forms you will need if your child of school age. To start you need to create an account, download school and medical forms, that need to be signed by school principal and your child pediatrician. Once you have those forms, you will need to upload them to the account and submit.

If your future star is of school age, you do not need to get a permission from the doctor, despite what the website says, school permission is enough. It might take you several weeks to receive a permit, if you are in a rush you can go directly to the office of Department of Industrial Relationship and get permit on the spot. Time in the office will go faster if you upload everything online before going in. And voila!, your child can work, or actually start submitting  for additions. Also, you child will need to get a Coogan account, which is not every bank will open. Two big banks are Wells Fargo and Bank of America. In order to open a bank account you as a guardian will have to bring your child first paycheck or an offer from an employer.

Meanwhile, keep receipts of all the payments you made toward acting, signing, sport classes, miles you drove to take your child to  additions, fees for casting websites you paid, payments for head shots and personal coaching for your child, wardrobes purchases ( not the closes child can wear on every day basis, only costumes), as these are all deductible on your tax return. But remember, in order to deduct these expenses, your child needs to actively peruse an acting/modeling/signing career.