# "N Word" carved into / vandalized on my car door--can I switch from actual expenses to mileage?



## Uberman123456 (Oct 20, 2016)

A schizophrenic homeless person in the Flamingo Las Vegas parking lot carved "CIA N------" into my passenger side door with a screwdriver. I had to pay $500+ to get it fixed, as I believe it's against Uber's Terms of Service to drive around with "N-----" prominently displayed on your car trolololololol. 

This was in 2016. After getting it fixed, I tried Uber for a week and hated it. My dumb self made just over $600 so I had to file. 

I didn't plan on ever driving for Uber again so I did "actual expenses" and wrote off the sanding and repainting of the door. 

Things changed and I went back to Uber and had a much better experience in 2018. According to my yearly summary I drove ~6000 miles with a net of ~$6500. As I have a newer car (2016 model year) my actual expenses weren't that great but my mileage writeoff would be about 3300 at 54.5 cents a mile. Plus tracking mileage is way less of a pain, although I have done a decent job at keeping all my Uber expenses on one credit card. 

I'm pretty sure you can only use one method or the other for the lifetime of a car, but can or should I amend the 2016 return to be mileage and then use mileage this year? Which method do most Uber drivers use, anyway? 

I'm probably gonna have to get all the specific numbers for mileage and expenses compiled before I can really get the correct answer on this, but any thoughts at this point would be appreciated.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

If you want to use the standard mileage rate to calculate vehicle expenses, you must choose it in the first year you use the car for business. In later years you can choose to use the standard mileage rate or switch to actual expenses. Once you use actual expenses for the vehicle, you must use actual expenses for the remaining life of the automobile.

If you use the standard mileage rate, you must have records of business versus personal miles driven.

If you use actual expenses, you must have records of all expenses and must allocate those between business and personal use.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

Uberman123456 said:


> A schizophrenic homeless person in the Flamingo Las Vegas parking lot carved "CIA N------" into my passenger side door with a screwdriver. I had to pay $500+ to get it fixed, as I believe it's against Uber's Terms of Service to drive around with "N-----" prominently displayed on your car trolololololol.
> 
> This was in 2016. After getting it fixed, I tried Uber for a week and hated it. My dumb self made just over $600 so I had to file.
> 
> ...


No, you can't amend the 2016 return to change your vehicle expense election. Most Uber drivers use the standard mileage method.


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## sltes77 (Nov 7, 2015)

Sounds like you car was vandalized by terry Davis. He's a computer programmer that went schizophrenic. He lived in Las Vegas and always ranted about cia ni***rs. He died last summer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Davis


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## Uberman123456 (Oct 20, 2016)

Hunh very interesting but IIRC it was a 20-something Hispanic dude.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

Uberman123456 said:


> A schizophrenic homeless person in the Flamingo Las Vegas parking lot carved "CIA N------" into my passenger side door with a screwdriver. I had to pay $500+ to get it fixed, as I believe it's against Uber's Terms of Service to drive around with "N-----" prominently displayed on your car trolololololol.
> 
> This was in 2016. After getting it fixed, I tried Uber for a week and hated it. My dumb self made just over $600 so I had to file.
> 
> ...


If you get a Police Report
You can write off crime.

All expenses.



sltes77 said:


> Sounds like you car was vandalized by terry Davis. He's a computer programmer that went schizophrenic. He lived in Las Vegas and always ranted about cia ni***rs. He died last summer.
> 
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Davis


Fell on a Scredriver 72 times ???


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## Older Chauffeur (Oct 16, 2014)

UberTaxPro said:


> No, you can't amend the 2016 return to change your vehicle expense election. Most Uber drivers use the standard mileage method.


Might not be enough money involved to be worth the hassle, but could he amend his 2016 return to claim a casualty loss? (Even if he could switch his expense selection, I don't see it being a business expense, given that it happened prior to his starting with Uber.)


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

Older Chauffeur said:


> Might not be enough money involved to be worth the hassle, but could he amend his 2016 return to claim a casualty loss? (Even if he could switch his expense selection, I don't see it being a business expense, given that it happened prior to his starting with Uber.)


Yes, he could amend the return and claim the casualty loss as long as the amended return is "timely filed"


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