# Can i claim these miles?



## cheddacheese (Jun 23, 2016)

I work my day job about 20 minutes from the city I work in. Ive been turning on destination filter to and from work to try and get a ride here or there. Its pretty unlikely ill get a ping but since I am available to pick up am I able to claim these miles? I usually get a ping about once a week and will take any that do come.


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

Honestly, I wouldn't do it, the last 6 months i was ubering was doing exactly what you are doing (on the way to the shop to pick up a taxi).

You're going generate way too much in deductible miles and it will look like a giant red flag.

Keep doing what your doing thou, as it's absolutely no harm, and might recover some of your expenses that you would already be getting anyway.


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

I did that for about a month to offset my earnings, but it was just too much work after a while. Are you keeping full accounting using a mileage tracker app for all this?

20 minutes in the city/highway driving is probably about 12 miles each way? That's about the distance my commute used to be. In the grand scheme of it, it's not your fault that you didn't get a request during those miles. You were on and available, even taking the few pickup requests that you do get. As long as they can't find out that you don't accept the rides, or cancel on rides, when you do get them during these runs, you should be fine. I'd probably start screenshotting the waybills of each of the rides you do accept and complete during these times so you have proof that you are not doing it simply for the deductions and are taking fares when they are presented to you. 

I would maybe wake up earlier than usual once a week and go towards work without the destination filter on so you can get a few extra pickups.


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## Cableguynoe (Feb 14, 2017)

Mears Troll Number 4 said:


> Honestly, I wouldn't do it, the last 6 months i was ubering was doing exactly what you are doing (on the way to the shop to pick up a taxi).
> 
> You're going generate way too much in deductible miles and it will look like a giant red flag.
> 
> Keep doing what your doing thou, as it's absolutely no harm, and might recover some of your expenses that you would already be getting anyway.


Has anyone had an issue claiming too many miles? I'm using MileIQ, but I know many just record them manually. Of course anyone could just make up a number. I'm wondering at what point you might have to provide proof if the number seems too high?


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

Cableguynoe said:


> Has anyone had an issue claiming too many miles? I'm using MileIQ, but I know many just record them manually. Of course anyone could just make up a number. I'm wondering at what point you might have to provide proof if the number seems too high?


The miles have to have a "business purpose" to be deductible. If you ever get audited concerning the mileage deduction you'd have to produce a mileage log. MileIQ should be able to provide the log but you have to provide the business purpose. Most audits these days are done by mail so it's possible that you could be asked to send the log by mail to an auditor someday.


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

Cableguynoe said:


> Has anyone had an issue claiming too many miles? I'm using MileIQ, but I know many just record them manually. Of course anyone could just make up a number. I'm wondering at what point you might have to provide proof if the number seems too high?


When I was audited they spent all of 8 seconds looking through my mileage log.

It's one of those things that if you have a good log i think your fine, but if you have no log that's where your problem lies.


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

Mears Troll Number 4 said:


> When I was audited they spent all of 8 seconds looking through my mileage log.
> 
> It's one of those things that if you have a good log i think your fine, but if you have no log that's where your problem lies.


The great thing about the app logs like the one I use, TripLog, is while you keep track of the start and end of your business miles, it automoatically logs the miles in between as personal. So when you export the files to an excel chart, it breaks it all down between business and personal miles so all miles are tracked and logged.

I would definitely recommend some kind of app to track miles rather than manually keeping track. If it's in a long, several pages of detail logs on a excel spread sheet, they may glaze over it but if you are hand jamming that log... they may look at it with more scrutiny....


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