Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, provisions of which affect 2018 and later, there are fewer instances in which mileage is deductible. The miscellaneous itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee travel expenses was eliminated. Taxpayers cannot claim a deduction for moving expenses, unless they are members of the Armed Forces moving to a permanent change of station.
67 cents per mile for business use, up 1.5 cents from 2023. This includes 30 cents per mile of depreciation.
21 cents per mile for medical or moving (Armed Forces only), decrease of
1 cent
14 cents per mile charitable, unchanged as it's set by statute
If a car gets 25 miles a gallon, at $4.50 a gallon for gasoline (on the low end in California), gasoline _alone_ costs 18 cents a gallon. The 14 cents a mile figure for charity hardly seems equitable. And it's worse in states like California, where a formula increases your car insurance rates based on number of miles driven.
I know, Congress favors business. But it seems especially mean- spirited not even to let the charitable standard mileage deduction rise with inflation.
There's no option to take actual costs for medical and charitable mileages, is there? That's just for businesses, right?
No. But you cannot deduct general repair and maintenance nor depreciation for charitable. I didn't look up car expenses for medical, but I think it's the same. The difference is if you substantiate the unreimbursed expenses versus just keeping track of the mileage for the standard deduction. With charitable, it might behoove the taxpayer to keep detailed records to justify actual expenses.
I haven't gotten Publ. 526 for 2023, but for 2022, it says,
Out-of-Pocket Expenses in Giving Services
Car expenses. You can deduct as a charitable contribution any unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses, such as the cost of gas and oil, di- rectly related to the use of your car in giving services to a charitable organization. You can't deduct general repair and maintenance expen- ses, depreciation, registration fees, or the costs of tires or insurance.
If you don't want to deduct your actual ex- penses, you can use a standard mileage rate of 14 cents a mile to figure your contribution. You can deduct parking fees and tolls whether you use your actual expenses or the standard mileage rate.
You must keep reliable written records of your car expenses. For more information, see Car expenses under Substantiation Require- ments, later.
Out-of-Pocket Expenses
Car expenses. If you claim expenses directly related to use of your car in giving services to a qualified organization, you must keep reliable written records of your expenses. Whether your records are considered reliable depends on all the facts and circumstances. Generally, they may be considered reliable if you made them regularly and at or near the time you had the ex- penses.
For example, your records might show the name of the organization you were serving and the dates you used your car for a charitable pur- pose. If you use the standard mileage rate of 14 cents a mile, your records must show the miles you drove your car for the charitable purpose. If you deduct your actual expenses, your records must show the costs of operating the car that are directly related to a charitable purpose.
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