Taxes. Isn’t this a joyful subject? Well, the reality is, when entrepreneurs like us get audited the first thing they look at is your car mileage.
Did you report it or write it off? Can you prove you used that travel for your business? How many miles was that trip exactly?
Who of us can actually prove that? I’m guilty of being less than certain on my car mileage. I file taxes with a percentage guess of how much I drove for business because most of the time I do drive for business, but that wouldn’t work with any auditor.
My new bookkeeper kicked me in the ass for that one and told me that auditors will look at this first. I really had to get my act together.
But I don’t want to hand-write out my business mileage. I have appointments in my calendar to show where I was going, but matching that up would take forever! No, thank you. I honestly don’t know where I went and how many miles that was off the top of my head. It’s a mess.
Let me save you some time.
There is an app out there called Mile IQ that takes the GPS on your phone and tracks where you’re going. Don’t think about as creepy because it will be so worth it when tax time rolls around. When you’re driving, it will ding with a drive of where you went and when down to how many miles it was and how much money you could write off for that job. Swipe for personal, swipe for business. It’s that easy to track your travels.
Mile IQ has even more to it. It has room for notes, so if you were travelling as an employee, you could add notes to let your boss know any specific expenses like tolls or parking. You can take note of multiple cars too if you have a business and personal car. It’s easy to change what car you’re driving through the app.
The newest feature I discovered is the connection to my Google calendar. Now I can connect the drive to the appointment in my calendar. I’m set! If I ever get audited, I can pull those reports of how many miles I drove and where I was going down to who I met and what we did. It’s all connected and together. My auditor will know I’ve got my shit together.
Spend the money. It’s such a peace of mind to know that if you get audited, you have the answers.
Here’s my affiliate link to Mile IQ if you want to help pay for my next cup of coffee and get 20% off for yourself: click here.
Like I’ve said, I only share tools that I really believe in and use. Mile IQ is one that is really saving me when it comes to tax season, so if that is one stressful time for yourself, get the right tools to make things easier!
