Electric Vehicle Range Calculations

If you are self-employed and use your car for business, keeping track of mileage could be the most profitable use of their time throughout the year. I know it sounds shocking, but often true. Many if not most self-employed people find monitor the commercial use of your vehicle to be a nuisance and simply do not. After all, the need for a mileage log emerges only in tax time, so it is not in our minds all year.

How much is your time worth? Most of us think our time is too valuable to pass the recording Business mileage in a log book every time we get in the car for business purposes. But I will convince you otherwise.

First I have a few assumptions. Let us assume that, as self-employed your tax return in a Schedule as a sole proprietor, thus subjecting business income for self-employment tax at 15.3%. Next I'll assume that is in the range of 25% marginal tax. That is, for every additional dollar you earn you pay 25 cents in the federal income tax.

For purposes of this example, I'll assume that you drive about 8,000 miles per year for commercial purposes. That means that driving customers, suppliers, the office supply store, the post office, etc. The standard deduction allowed by the IRS for business use of your car has been hovering around 50 cents per mile in recent years. As I write this, the allowable deduction is 55 cents per mile. For 8,000 miles, which gives a deduction $ 4,400 against your business income. Since you are paying taxes at a rate of 40.3% (15.3% self-employment tax + 25% federal income tax) that $ 4,400 deduction will reduce your tax bill by $ 1,773!

I keep a spiral notebook in my car seat at all times. Every time I get into my to conduct car business to write the date, mileage beginning, my destiny and my purpose. It takes less than a minute. When I come home, I record mileage end. At the end of the year, all amounts entered in a spreadsheet and calculate the total mileage. Then I go into the business mileage on my tax software and smile as I see my tax bill is drastically reduced.

But is it worth it? Let's say that based on my experience, the average person will spend about 8 minutes a week keeping track of mileage. That works out to 7 hours per year. Add an hour to enter the amounts in a spreadsheet to year. That is 8 hours of labor to save $ 1773. That works $ 221.63 per hour. Do you normally earn more than $ 200 per hour? Probably not. As you can see, worth your time to keep track of mileage. If you are in a lower tax bracket or if the drive fewer miles, you can perform the calculation yourself to see if it's worth your time.

For those who simply calculate the amount you use your car for business every year, keep in mind that the IRS has strict requirements for auto mileage justification. They do not accept the estimates. You must have a written record that is "contemporary". That is, is recorded at or near the day of business travel. That means you can not recreate a mileage log six months after the fact.

If you are one of the self-employed people has always been too busy to be bothered with a record of mileage, I hope you reconsider. It could be more profitable work to be done all year.

D. McRee is a freelance writer who enjoys publishing articles and web sites about his favorite topics. He frequently writes about the best Florida beaches, technical business topics, and self-improvement. Several years ago he discovered the benefits of Kava Kava Tea and has published a web site about this amazing herb.

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