This post is sponsored by Mile IQ, but all of my opinions are my own.
I don’t know about you, but as a work-from-home writer who has two children involved in various activities and who also has a metric ton of volunteer obligations to fulfill, some days it feels as though I live my entire life behind the wheel of my SUV.
It’s common knowledge for most entrepreneurs that their business mileage is tax deductible in the United States, to the tune of 54¢ per mile as of 2016. But did you know that the mileage accrued during your drives for volunteer purposes are also tax deductible at a rate of 14¢ per mile? I didn’t either—not until I heard about Mile IQ, downloaded it, and tried it out for myself.
You see, as long as the organization you’re volunteering for is registered as a 501c3 nonprofit with the IRS, most of your vehicle’s mileage accrued on their behalf is a tax deduction for you. If you’re a volunteer coach for your kid’s soccer team and you’re driving to practices or going on equipment errands, those miles are tax deductible. If you’re a parent who’s heavily involved in the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) at school and your PTO is a 501c3 organization, any driving that you do for it is tax deductible. This includes errands for event supplies, meeting refreshments, picking up donations from local businesses, you name it; any drives that are solely undertaken for the benefit of that organization are tax deductible!
For myself, I can tell you right now that Mile IQ is going to save me a bunch of money on next year’s taxes. Not only am I involved with the PTO at my kids’ school—I’m midway through my fourth year on the executive board, just kill me now—but I also volunteer for the tax-exempt school itself as the publisher and editor of the monthly newspaper they provide to the community. The gig includes the picking up, sorting and labeling, and mailing of 2,250 papers.
Because I live in the middle of BFE, the nearest Walmart and dollar store are located in the same plaza 13.7 miles away from my house. That’s my go-to place every time I have to do a supply run for PTO business, whether it’s for an upcoming event or just picking up the refreshments for our monthly meeting. A single round trip is 27.4 miles. I’m not sure how many times per year I drive out there for PTO supplies, but just one trip equates to $3.83 that’s tax deductible at the end of the year.
Things get even more interesting when I distribute the newspapers. I pick them up at a location 14.5 miles away. From there, I go to the post office just a couple of blocks down the road to grab the sorting tubs and bins. I take everything back home to sort and label 2,250 newspapers, and then I have to take them back to that same post office 14.5 miles away because it’s the only one “nearby” that accepts bulk mailings. All said, one mailing of the community newspaper totals 58 miles roundtrip, equaling $8.12 in tax deductions. There are twelve months in a year, so just logging that single volunteer activity will save me $97.44 a year.
How is Mile IQ going to help me #MakeTripsSmarter? I’ll never have to remember to log my miles on paper because Mile IQ is always running in the background, automatically detecting every mile I drive, reliably and accurately. Not only that, but it automatically calculates the value of my drives, saving me from having to do the math. To classify a drive as a volunteer excursion, I select the drive, swipe left, and hold:
To add the classification under Personal miles, I choose the “Charity” icon. Business owners and freelancers who meet clients off-site would use MileIQ the same way to track their miles as business deductions. If you run work-related errands in your own vehicle, or if you drive to multiple job sites and need to track those miles for a deduction, you would swipe right to classify the drive as a business expense. It’s that simple.
Mile IQ saves my entire drive history in the cloud and my reports can easily be exported and sent directly to my email address. The app is free to download and tracks up to 40 drives per month, with unlimited drives available on the upgraded annual or monthly plans. With the money you’ll save in tax deductions, the upgraded app pays for itself in no time at all. On top of that, the fee for upgrading MileIQ can usually be claimed as a business expenditure that, you guessed it, is tax deductible.
If you’re a parent who volunteers for school or sports organizations and you find yourself driving all over the earth for them, isn’t it time you started keeping track of those tax deductions? Little by little, they add up and you’ll find yourself saving hundreds of dollars every year!
Right now, our readers can #MakeTripsSmarter by downloading the free Mile IQ app and enjoy 20% off the unlimited drives annual plan by entering discount code SMARTTRIPS20.
