How to Track Mileage for Taxes | Bookkeeping 101 - YouTube

How many of you guys would love to get paid for doing a Starbucks run?

Well stay tuned because in this video I am going to be talking about how you can turn

your everyday errands into a tax deduction.

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In order to turn your everyday errands into a tax deduction there are just a few key

things that you need to make sure to do.

So first of all, you need to make sure that you have a business.

I know that's probably seems pretty common sense but

the reality is you may have a business - you may be selling purses, selling oils,

maybe you make handcrafted blankets for people. Whatever your business is, there's

a difference between actually running a business versus running a hobby.

So that is a key thing to being able to write off your mileage on your tax return

so that you get an even bigger tax refund.

So you really need to make sure that you're following the rules

to make sure that you are operating as a business and not a hobby.

You can check out some videos in the description below where I

talk more in depth about how to do that. But I just want you to know it is crazy

important because if you're not doing that then all of a sudden these everyday

errands are just personal errands. And we can't take advantage of it and get you

paid for doing things like picking up your kids from school or getting paid

for getting your groceries from the grocery store things like that.

The second thing is that you need to find a way to turn your everyday errands

into having an actual business purpose so what I mean by that is if you want to

go to Starbucks and pick up a coffee you can't just go there and say alright this

is a tax deduction. You have to actually have a business reason for being there.

So you can be creative with this. If Starbucks has really great Wi-Fi, they

have a good fast internet connection, then it's possible that something you

need to do with your business that day needs to take advantage of that faster

internet speed. So you need to go to Starbucks to utilize it.

Or if you want to go out to eat with a friend, if they've been a past customer of yours,

you can set up that luncheon to be able to just check in with them and say

"Hey, how are those products going? Do you have any questions with it?"

That all the sudden turns that meal into a business purpose.

Going to the grocery store you can pick up envelopes to be able to send receipts to customers.

You can head to the city and go to the mall to pick up clothes for your kids but

while you're there look at some things for a business presentation.

Maybe you're going and doing a home party and you want to have something nice for that.

Be creative and get that business purpose because once you have that then you can

turn these trips into a business expense. Mileage that you need to be tracking.

So let me know in the comments - what are some errands that you could turn into

having a business purpose when you're doing them? Now the next thing that we

need to talk about is that it's really important when you're figuring out this

business purpose, you need to actually plan it in advance. That is key and a lot

of people don't realize that. They think that if they go out to eat and all of a

sudden they just happen to bring up, "Oh you know what? We talked about my

business. I can turn that into a business expense." Well, technically you can't do

that you have to be premeditated with this business purpose. So if you want to

say that milage heading to the restaurant is a business purpose as a

tax write-off then you have to make sure that you had that business that business

reasons set up ahead of time. It doesn't take very long at all, just a few seconds

of your time to get that planned out. Jot it down on your calendar so that you're

you have a way to track it and document that this was planned out in advance and

you're good to go. While we're talking about documentation:

It's really important that you document five things. This is key in how to track mileage for taxes.

You have to have these five pieces of information in order for

your mileage to be counted as a tax deduction. So you need to have first and

foremost the vehicle that you used to do the traveling. Then you need to have

the date of the trip. You also need to be documenting the

destination. So actually put in the address the full address of where you're

heading to. I always include the beginning addresses as well that way you

proof of your starting point, your ending point, and then after that trip is over

your return trip. So get all of those things documented down. You also need to

make sure that you have the total miles driven. And the business purpose because

remember if you don't have a business purpose then you cannot write off this

mileage. So that's why it's important that you actually document that down

when you're tracking their mileage. Now if you want to learn how to document

these five things in an actual spreadsheet it is so so easy make sure

to check out the link in the description for that video where I will be talking

about how to actually put those pieces of information into an Excel spreadsheet

so that it is super super easy for you to keep track of. The last thing we're

talking about today is how to actually track the mileage for your taxes.

So there's a lot of different tools that you can use. You can use a spreadsheet

which is my personal favorite. Or you can use just a pen and paper. Keep a notebook

in your vehicle and a pen. And you could just jot down every single time that you

have done some mileage for business. You could also use an app. So there's a few

different apps that are talked about a lot for tracking mileage. There is Stride Drive,

Mile IQ, Trip Log, and Mileage Expense Log. Those are all super easy

apps that you can use. But again you don't have to. I just stick with excel

and it's super super easy. And the last tool that I think is a must is to use

Google Maps. So tracking your mileage using Google Maps. And the reason why

that's so great is because this way you don't have to be writing down your

odometer reading every time that you do a business trip. You just grab that

beginning address, your ending address, plug it into Google Maps and it'll tell

you the exact mileage that you used in that business trip. And you can

document that down right in your spreadsheet or in your app, whatever you

are using. So now that you know how to turn your everyday errands into a tax

deduction what about how to turn your everyday expenses into a tax deduction?

Well for that I put together a free guide that is just a cheat sheet of

around 70 different expenses that you could be using

to count as a business tax deduction. You can grab the link for that free guide in

the description below. But I also wanted to really share with you that there is a

super super amazing challenge that's going on right now called the

21 Day Mom Fog Challenge. And the reason why this is so perfect for women, for moms who

are entrepreneurs is that you know that time management and productivity are

like key when it comes to running a successful business. But sometimes we can

struggle with that. Also when it comes to mom brain, I don't really need to

say anything more but that is a real thing guys. So this 21-day mom fog

challenge will actually go through helping you get over the mom brain, clear out the

mom fog and be more productive, way better with your time management skills.

It is crazy good. So if you want to join me in that challenge and go through it

with me, we'll walk hand-in-hand. I'll be your

personal coach as you're going through it and you can just grab the link in the

description below. So if you found this video helpful please make sure to let me

know by liking it, leaving a comment, share it with a friend that would find

it helpful and subscribe so that you don't miss another upcoming video