Since today is most everyone’s first working day of the new year, I thought it might be appropriate to list the 2010 standard mileage rates that took effect January 1.
For 2010 the rates will be:
50 cents for business miles driven
16.5 cents for medical miles driven
14 cents for miles driven for a charitable organization
Standard mileage rates can’t be used if you have taken any depreciation under MACRS or for any vehicle you have taken a section 179 deduction. You also can’t use the standard deduction for vehicles held for hire or for more than four vehicles at once.
You do have the option of calculating and deducting the actual cost of operating the vehicle in lieu of the standard rate.
Each time these rates are announced, I am reminded that many years ago an automaker attempted to help taxpayers keep track of their mileage by having a button on the dash before the driver began his trip to indicate whether this was business, medical or charitable. At the end of the year the miles would be tallied.
There would be a couple of problems with this. First, this probably would not satisfy IRS record keeping requirements of keeping a log that indicate where and for what purpose you were traveling.
More importantly, this would mean that every time Elliot Spitzer picked up Kristen for a date, he would have to hit the ‘business’ button and every time Steve Phillips picked up his girlfriend Brooke he would have to hit the ‘Charity’ button.
For 2010 the rates will be:
50 cents for business miles driven
16.5 cents for medical miles driven
14 cents for miles driven for a charitable organization
Standard mileage rates can’t be used if you have taken any depreciation under MACRS or for any vehicle you have taken a section 179 deduction. You also can’t use the standard deduction for vehicles held for hire or for more than four vehicles at once.
You do have the option of calculating and deducting the actual cost of operating the vehicle in lieu of the standard rate.
Each time these rates are announced, I am reminded that many years ago an automaker attempted to help taxpayers keep track of their mileage by having a button on the dash before the driver began his trip to indicate whether this was business, medical or charitable. At the end of the year the miles would be tallied.
There would be a couple of problems with this. First, this probably would not satisfy IRS record keeping requirements of keeping a log that indicate where and for what purpose you were traveling.
More importantly, this would mean that every time Elliot Spitzer picked up Kristen for a date, he would have to hit the ‘business’ button and every time Steve Phillips picked up his girlfriend Brooke he would have to hit the ‘Charity’ button.
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