Vehicle mileage and depreciation

[mcdanielrch]

I have a client that purchased an 84000.00 truck for business.  He did not record mileage, but the return asks for mileage even if I choose the option to use actual expenses. I can get an average for the miles but why does it ask for it when your answers imply that you do not have a mileage account?

Can someone please tell me where to input the $84000.00 truck for Sec 179?

Thank you!   

[IRonMaN]

The purpose of mileage is to kinda decipher how much of that 84,000 gets to be written off.  If he drives 20,000 miles a year and only 500 miles are for business, it starts to get difficult to write off the whole truck.

[mcdanielrch]

Thank you for your answer.  But I guess I didn't word my question correctly.  If there is no record of mileage for the year, do I need to estimate mileage? 

[IRonMaN]

"do I need to estimate mileage?"

No, the client needs to do that.  You do need to answer the questions correctly as to whether or not the mileage records are written.

[dkh]

When the client purchased the vehicle, documents would have truck mileage.  Ask the client for the current mileage on the truck or see if there was any service done near the end of the year such as an oil change - there would have been mileage noted then.

[IRonMaN]

Total mileage should be relatively easy to estimate ------------- it's that business vs personal mileage that gets dicey.

[mcdanielrch]

Thank you for your answers!  

[mcdanielrch]

Thank you!  You confirmed the only method I could come up with!!

[mcdanielrch]

Thank you for your answers!  Now for the second part of my post.  Where do I enter the truck for Sec 179?  And if you can post a pic of the return....I've tried everything and it's not changing his bottom line at all.

[dkh]

Schedule C, Part II - select Quickzoom to Car/Truck Worksheet  (but I'm guessing you are already there since you've asked about mileage).   Once on the Car/Truck Worksheet, scroll down lines 31-34

Wait....is this a Sched C ???? 

[mcdanielrch]

Yes it is a Sch C....

[IRonMaN]

You have to have mileage entered before it will calculate any kind of deduction.

[qbteachmt]

You intended to use Actuals, but you still need to know how much of the Actuals was business, if there is any mixed use.

"I can get an average for the miles"

It's not "average." It's supposed to be documented, not estimated. If the vehicle was used solely for business, that makes it easy. Check any maintenance and repair receipt, tire purchase, rotation, etc. They all document the mileage on that date of service.

If they have a routine travel scenario, perhaps they have a schedule from work assignments that will help them create a mileage log from a work log.