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Tax deductions?; How do you keep track?
Topic Started: Mar 9 2006, 02:28 PM (316 Views)
BeeLady
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Middle Aged Carp
I am trying really hard to document my expenses in my new found career (Realtor).....Thank goodness for Excel! :clap:

But it has been awhile since I have done this and I wonder how others keep track of mileage in particular.

Keeping a daily log is a drag.....ugh.... Someday someone will invent an odometer that you punch upon entering the car, punch exiting and have it keep track of all your business related travel! Maybe I am missing something and there is such a thing?

Justme, how are you doing it?

April 15 will be here before I know it! :blink:
"My wheel shall sing responsive to my tread,
And I will spin so fine, so strong a thread
Fate shall not cut it, nor Time's forces break"
"Distaff and Spindle: Sonnets by Mary Ashley Townsend" 1895
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The 89th Key
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I also had a question about mileage. Do you just put the number of miles and the reason? Or do you have to keep gas-station receipts? Good questions BeeLady, and good luck with the Realtor stuff! :)
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BeeLady
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Middle Aged Carp
Thanks, 89th. I am lovin' it!

As for the rules, I find little. Most, to me, sound like the dark ages when I was on the road 20 years ago.

I have been logging not just mileage but my odometer reading before and after as well as the reason and location of trips. Sounds ok for occasional trips but 5-6 times a week is getting tedious.

Maybe I need to come up with a meter device for the dash board! :sombrero:
"My wheel shall sing responsive to my tread,
And I will spin so fine, so strong a thread
Fate shall not cut it, nor Time's forces break"
"Distaff and Spindle: Sonnets by Mary Ashley Townsend" 1895
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schindler
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Fulla-Carp
Beelady: This is a sheet my dad made up to keep track of business miles on our car. Maybe it will gives some ideas.

Posted Image
We're all mad here!
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BeeLady
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Middle Aged Carp
Schindler....Walmart???? :eek:

There has got to be a better (more automated) way.....
"My wheel shall sing responsive to my tread,
And I will spin so fine, so strong a thread
Fate shall not cut it, nor Time's forces break"
"Distaff and Spindle: Sonnets by Mary Ashley Townsend" 1895
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The 89th Key
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Schindler, nice font.

It's fontastic!
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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
It's is so very disgusting that we are micro-managed in such a manner.

:veryangry:
___.___
(_]===*
o 0
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Just make them up as you do your taxes. Extra points for creativity.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Mikhailoh
Mar 10 2006, 09:15 AM
Just make them up as you do your taxes. Extra points for creativity.

I shared that joke with my friend who is an IRS agent.

He laughed, and then asked me for your address and SSN.

The dogma lives loudly within me.
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schindler
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Fulla-Carp
:lol:

Yippes! :hide:
We're all mad here!
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big al
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Bull-Carp
Out of long habit, I just keep expenses in a categorized pocket diary from which I tranfer by hand to expense account spreadsheet (I work for an employer so my expense accounts have to follow their format and code of accounts). I suppose there is probably a PDA application that would perform the same function and automate the download to whatever database you wanted the expense info in, but I haven't looked for one. I'm only occasionally on the road and the old tried-and-true diary and pen satisfy my needs and gives me a place to stuff the receipts until I complete my account.

Does anyone have a particular tech solution that they like (as long as we work in the present tax code structure, we're not going to escape documenting expenses)?

Big Al
Location: Western PA

"jesu, der simcha fun der man's farlangen."
-bachophile
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
ivorythumper
Mar 10 2006, 08:48 AM
Mikhailoh
Mar 10 2006, 09:15 AM
Just make them up as you do your taxes.   Extra points for creativity.

I shared that joke with my friend who is an IRS agent.

He laughed, and then asked me for your address and SSN.



It's cool. Just give him yours.

Actually, even being self-employed, I have no real way that I could cheat and reap any significant benefit. All my income is reported 1099, and my expenses well documented and reimbursed. If I were to cheat I woudl have to make things up out of whole cloth, which is inadvisable. You don't have to be right in an audit, but you had better have a position on why you did what you did.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Mikhailoh
Mar 10 2006, 01:31 PM
ivorythumper
Mar 10 2006, 08:48 AM
Mikhailoh
Mar 10 2006, 09:15 AM
Just make them up as you do your taxes.  Extra points for creativity.

I shared that joke with my friend who is an IRS agent.

He laughed, and then asked me for your address and SSN.



It's cool. Just give him yours.

Actually, even being self-employed, I have no real way that I could cheat and reap any significant benefit. All my income is reported 1099, and my expenses well documented and reimbursed. If I were to cheat I woudl have to make things up out of whole cloth, which is inadvisable. You don't have to be right in an audit, but you had better have a position on why you did what you did.

I thought you would have figured out that I was kidding. IRS agents are incapable of laughing. :wink:
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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