# Is a trip to car wash considered as business trip?



## WilsonC (Mar 11, 2016)

I am wondering if a trip to a car wash considered as business trip (so the milages I drive to a car wash place is tax deductible)?

Thanks in Advance


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## Disgusted Driver (Jan 9, 2015)

Are you washing the car so that it is presentable for Uber Service? Then of course it's a deductible expense.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

WilsonC said:


> I am wondering if a trip to a car wash considered as business trip (so the milages I drive to a car wash place is tax deductible)?
> 
> Thanks in Advance


Yes! The trip does need to be ordinary and necessary so driving to a car wash in Las Vegas from San Fran wouldn't qualify. A trip to a car wash in your local area would be ordinary and necessary.


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## StarzykCPA (Aug 6, 2015)

WilsonC said:


> I am wondering if a trip to a car wash considered as business trip (so the milages I drive to a car wash place is tax deductible)?
> 
> Thanks in Advance





Disgusted Driver said:


> Are you washing the car so that it is presentable for Uber Service? Then of course it's a deductible expense.





UberTaxPro said:


> Yes! The trip does need to be ordinary and necessary so driving to a car wash in Las Vegas from San Fran wouldn't qualify. A trip to a car wash in your local area would be ordinary and necessary.


Yes, indeed. Great question! On your mileage log (or whatever you use), you would indicate the purpose of the trip/the amount spent on the car wash to support the business purpose.


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## MulletMan (Mar 2, 2016)

I've taken mileage off my taxes for decades; from my career as a builder, miles for my mobile check cashing biz, pizza delivery. For those who are very detail oriented or you have a gas guzzler or lots of time on your hands you may want to keep track of all your expenses. You'd be surprised how many transactions you'll build up during the year. I have a credit card just for UBER/LYFT expenses so it's very easy to keep a detailed record. You get your year end statement and boom..every thing there and totalled up. But I've always taken the standard mileage deduction. I started Uber at 120k; we'll see where we are at year end, and I plug in 80% for business use. Don't do 100%, that's a red flag and noone wants to be audited. When I did pizza a few years back, I was making about .50/mile (gross, not net), the deduction was like .57/mile, so pizza was on paper a loss. In 2013 I drove 35k miles x $.57/mile x 80% business so that's a deduction of nearly $16k which converts to about 25% refund or $4k in real dollars on your refund IF you have some other income. It really is just a quick payday on your car's depreciation. Always helps to have another job to offset that loss and you'll end up getting a pretty good refund.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

MulletMan said:


> I plug in 80% for business use. Don't do 100%, that's a red flag and noone wants to be audited.


*I always used to wonder about that even if you had non-business vehicles available. Right now, I have two vehicles that I use for business and two that are non-business. My accountant told me that he did need to allow for non-business use of the business vehicles even if I did have non-business vehicles available. There was a time when I did not have a non-business vehicle immediately available, so I used to rent cars for non-business use. My accountant told me that he would still allow for some non-business use of the business vehicles and that I should save my rental receipts in case there was an audit.

*I am not a Tax Professional, therefore, I am not qualified to dispense tax advice. Anyone who wants tax advice should seek it from a Professional who is qualified to dispense tax advice.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

Another Uber Driver said:


> *I always used to wonder about that even if you had non-business vehicles available. Right now, I have two vehicles that I use for business and two that are non-business. My accountant told me that he did need to allow for non-business use of the business vehicles even if I did have non-business vehicles available. There was a time when I did not have a non-business vehicle immediately available, so I used to rent cars for non-business use. My accountant told me that he would still allow for some non-business use of the business vehicles and that I should save my rental receipts in case there was an audit.
> 
> *I am not a Tax Professional, therefore, I am not qualified to dispense tax advice. Anyone who wants tax advice should seek it from a Professional who is qualified to dispense tax advice.


If you keep proper records why should you have to worry about an audit? An audit could be as simple as having to prove your mileage deduction by submitting your mileage log through mail correspondence. If you have good records you need not worry about audits. You shouldn't have to turn business miles into personal miles out of fear of an audit. Just keep good records and forget about audits.


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## mblatch (Mar 15, 2016)

WilsonC said:


> I am wondering if a trip to a car wash considered as business trip (so the milages I drive to a car wash place is tax deductible)?
> 
> Thanks in Advance


Great question as this is a deduction that can be overlooked! When you are using your car for business purposes and your business requires your car to be clean to keep customers happy, the trip to the car wash is considered business. For your records, you would just indicate the purpose of the trip and how many miles that trip took. You would also indicate the cost of the car wash to support this trip. Not only are your miles to the car wash deductible, your car wash itself would also be deductible!


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## nc231144 (Mar 28, 2016)

Yeah I say definitely deductible. In the grand scheme of things though, the dollars we are talking for getting your car washed per year aren't a material amount so in the event of an audit by the IRS, it is unlikely this is something they would even look at.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

nc231144 said:


> Yeah I say definitely deductible. In the grand scheme of things though, the dollars we are talking for getting your car washed per year aren't a material amount so in the event of an audit by the IRS, it is unlikely this is something they would even look at.


playing "audit lottery" is never a good idea for anyone and suggesting it to others just stinks.


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## UbesterKia (May 6, 2016)

2 car washes per week are accepted as tax write offs for service vehicles. Use the same place, save all receipts.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

UbesterKia said:


> 2 car washes per week are accepted as tax write offs for service vehicles. Use the same place, save all receipts.


are you talking about the mileage to the car wash or the actual car wash expense itself? Standard mileage deduction or actual expense method? Where did you get the 2 car washes per week #? 
Car washes are generally considered vehicle maintenance and are included in the Standard mileage deduction.


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## mybali (Jun 2, 2016)

I live in the suburb, about 40 miles away from the city (80 miles round trip) where I usually drive. In my tax deduction, I always include the mile I drive from home to the city and back, even though I turn on the Uber app only when I get to the city where I want to start pcking up customers. I know that many drivers only deduct the mile included in the 1099 form or only the mile when the app is turned on. That's a big lost of milage deduction.


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