Not All Business Mileage Records Were Sufficient to Claim Deduction

Posted by Kim Chen on August 12th, 2016

A married couple owning a business of marketing petroleum properties used their personal autos for business travel. For some activities, the husband kept a daily log of the miles he drove for clients, which he recorded upon returning to the office. However, for other trips, his recordkeeping wasnÆt so detailed. He either estimated the mileage or failed to list the destination. On their 2011 tax return, the couple claimed over $24,000 in vehicle expense deductions, which the IRS challenged. Although a contemporaneous log is not required, the Tax Court held that some of the taxpayer’s records failed to include enough corroborative evidence to support a reconstruction of the expense. Therefore, the Court disallowed all except those that included the specific mileage, purpose, and location of their claimed business expense ($7,143). James C. and Lucy H. Powell , TC Memo 2016-111 (Tax Ct.).

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