Need assistance with auto expenses

I drive a lot for work (in town and out), and receive 30 cents a mile.
A year ago that wasn't great, but now it is just awful.

The man who decides the amount has commented that "at 30 cents a mile
you are MAKING money" (perhaps he thinks we only pay for gas) and I'm
looking for a resource that will break down all the expenses by the
mile. Brakes, depreciation, regular oil changes, tires, etc.

I've been browsing for about 2 hours and can't find any reliable
sources I would quote in a meeting - any assistance would be
appreciated!

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/cto/CTOintroController This might help
a little

Thanks for the reply!

I tried that site - unfortunately, it doesn't give an itemized
breakdown (this guy thinks like an accountant) and it doesn't go back
far enough for my POS (1997 Taurus).

On 30 Aug 2005 17:26:31 -0700, "NeverBob" > wrote:

>I drive a lot for work (in town and out), and receive 30 cents a mile.
>A year ago that wasn't great, but now it is just awful.
>
>The man who decides the amount has commented that "at 30 cents a mile
>you are MAKING money" (perhaps he thinks we only pay for gas) and I'm
>looking for a resource that will break down all the expenses by the
>mile. Brakes, depreciation, regular oil changes, tires, etc.
>
>I've been browsing for about 2 hours and can't find any reliable
>sources I would quote in a meeting - any assistance would be
>appreciated!

It depends on your car...during the first hundred thousand miles of my
geo metro, the expenses of everything from 2500-mile oil changes and
tire replacements to PCV valve replacements came out to about 5 cents
per mile (gas consumed about half of this). I also threw in a hefty
$3500 for "other" expenses I might've forgotten. The labor was my own
(labor is always the biggest expense). This was back when they
re-imbursed 32 cents per mile.

Now I drive 150 miles a day doing on-site computer repair work. $25
per call, no mileage (this is a very stingy company). Picking up
parts at my "main place of business" (ie DHL drop-off point) is a
non-deductible commuting expense, but driving from there to various
"temporary work locations" is always deductible for tax purposes (see
publication 463, page 14). Driving from the last job to home is a
gray area, but for my case it's still deductible (40.5 cents per mile
this year).

I have a very strong feeling congress is gonna raise this mileage
deducation because of the skyrocketing gas prices. They would have to
be insane not to. Personally I still break out even at $5 a gallon,
but thats just me

Dan

In article . com>,
NeverBob > wrote:
>I drive a lot for work (in town and out), and receive 30 cents a mile.
>A year ago that wasn't great, but now it is just awful.
>
>The man who decides the amount has commented that "at 30 cents a mile
>you are MAKING money" (perhaps he thinks we only pay for gas) and I'm
>looking for a resource that will break down all the expenses by the
>mile. Brakes, depreciation, regular oil changes, tires, etc.
>
>I've been browsing for about 2 hours and can't find any reliable
>sources I would quote in a meeting - any assistance would be
>appreciated!

For maintenance and repair related costs, you can just go through your
service records. Add up the costs for a full cycle of services and
divide by the mileage to get a cost per mile. For things like tires,
divide the cost of replacing the tires by the number of miles you get
out of them. Same with brake pads. Fuel cost per mile is easy to
calculate.

Other factors can be calculated similarly. But note that many of them
have both ownership costs (that you pay even if you hardly drive the
car) and operating costs (that count up as you drive the car). If you
do not drive much, many maintenance services must be done based on a
time limit rather than mileage, so they become more of ownership costs
than operating costs at low mileage per year. Depreciation and insurance
have a large fixed component per year, but may also be affected by the
miles you drive. Of course, ownership costs can be eliminated if you
reduce your driving so that you no longer need the car and can sell it.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy J. Lee
Unsolicited bulk or commercial email is not welcome.
No warranty of any kind is provided with this message.

NeverBob wrote:
> I drive a lot for work (in town and out), and receive 30 cents a mile.
> A year ago that wasn't great, but now it is just awful.
>
> The man who decides the amount has commented that "at 30 cents a mile
> you are MAKING money" (perhaps he thinks we only pay for gas) and I'm
> looking for a resource that will break down all the expenses by the
> mile. Brakes, depreciation, regular oil changes, tires, etc.
>
> I've been browsing for about 2 hours and can't find any reliable
> sources I would quote in a meeting - any assistance would be
> appreciated!

In article . com>,
NeverBob > wrote:
>I drive a lot for work (in town and out), and receive 30 cents a mile.
>A year ago that wasn't great, but now it is just awful.
>
>The man who decides the amount has commented that "at 30 cents a mile
>you are MAKING money" (perhaps he thinks we only pay for gas) and I'm
>looking for a resource that will break down all the expenses by the
>mile. Brakes, depreciation, regular oil changes, tires, etc.
>
>I've been browsing for about 2 hours and can't find any reliable
>sources I would quote in a meeting - any assistance would be
>appreciated!

Well, the IRS lets you deduct - maybe 40.5c/mile these days? - and
they're sure not going to let you deduct more than they have to.
Perhaps their methods of reasoning/calculation are made public, so you
can use the work they did in your argument? Try asking them how they
calculate it. (-:

-- Mark

> Well, the IRS lets you deduct - maybe 40.5c/mile these days?

I don't know how either agency arrived at the figure, but that's the
same as the benchmark General Services Administration reimbursement
rate for use of a personally owned vehicle on Uncle Sam's business.
http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/con...pe=GSA_BASI C


Triple-A says that the average cost of owning and operating a newish
vehicle is actually more like 56.1 cents per mile, taking into account
depreciation and financing as well as operating costs:
http://www.csaa.com/global/articlede...7c5173,00.html


I can't imagine that at 30 cents a mile the original poster is "making
money" on anything that doesn't have pedals, not if you look even a
little beyond the most immediate costs of operation such as gasoline
and try to assign a value to wear and tear, etc.

Be thee warned, though: a glance around the Web indicates that some
organizations (especially stereotypical skinflints like colleges and
state agencies) do indeed reimburse you somewhere around 30 cents a
mile. Presumably their argument is that unless a car of a certain
grade is required as part of the job, the hidden costs are on you
because you'd be paying them anyway, and the institution is responsible
only for the immediate cost, take it or leave it.

Basically, underneath the detailed calculations there's a philosophical
decision about whether to truly cover your costs or just sort of meet
you halfway...

Cheers,
--Joe

>On 30 Aug 2005 17:26:31 -0700, "NeverBob" > wrote:
>
>I drive a lot for work (in town and out), and receive 30 cents a mile.
>A year ago that wasn't great, but now it is just awful.
>
>The man who decides the amount has commented that "at 30 cents a mile
>you are MAKING money" (perhaps he thinks we only pay for gas) and I'm
>looking for a resource that will break down all the expenses by the
>mile. Brakes, depreciation, regular oil changes, tires, etc.
>
>I've been browsing for about 2 hours and can't find any reliable
>sources I would quote in a meeting - any assistance would be
>appreciated!

It doesn't matter. The feds user 41.5 cents per mile. If you get
reimbursed 30 cents, you can deduct the other 11.5 cents per mile off
your taxes.

"DTJ" > wrote
> It doesn't matter. The feds user 41.5 cents per mile.
> If you get reimbursed 30 cents, you can deduct the
> other 11.5 cents per mile off your taxes.


In most cases, not. The difference would go to 2106, Schedule A, and be
limited to amounts above 2% of AGI and then itemizing your deductions.

You should ask for more per mile. And/or look for another job.



--
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
Athens, Georgia
taxman at negia.net