Many people drive their personal car some for business and some for their own use. You can only utilize the business miles. For your tax return, you will need:

• • Model/Make of the vehicle driven

  • Date placed in service (when you started driving it for business)

  • Amount of miles driven for business purposes

  • Amount of miles driven in total for the year

  • The miles driven for business should be kept in a log of some sort to note the date, miles driven, and purpose.

MILES DRIVEN FOR CHARITABLE REASONS:

Do you volunteer for a charitable organization? Are you a volunteer firefighter? Are you an athletic coach? Do you volunteer for your daughter's girl scout troop? Most recreational clubs and amateur sports teams are part of non-profit organizations. That means that though you cannot deduct your time volunteering, you CAN deduct your miles driven for the organization. The information to keep is the same as the bulleted list above. Be sure to note in it what the non-profit organization it is. The mileage rate for 2016 is 14 cents per mile.

MILES DRIVEN FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES:

We don't always have enough medical expenses to use the medical expense deduction, but if you can, be sure to include the miles driven for medical purposes. This includes driving to (and from) the doctor, dentist, optician, specialist, hospital, pharmacy, etc! The medical mileage rate for 2016 is 19 cents per mile.

KEEPING TRACK:

Search on Amazon for "miles log" or go on to the app store for an app that will keep track while you drive!