independent contractor mileage reimbursement

This 40 cent per mile reimbursement is substantially more generous than the current 18.5 cents per mile reimbursement set by the IRS. Eddie uses his own vehicle to make the deliveries and is reimbursed 40 cents for each mile that he drives because he is delivering pizza. For example, Eddie delivers pizza for Johnny’s New York Style Pizza Parlor. That might mean giving them a gas card or some other form of payment to use to gas up the vehicle. In some cases, an employee will actually offer to pay for the employee’s mileage. Legally, there isn’t a set reimbursement rate businesses can determine the rate themselves. If mileage allowance fits one of these descriptions, you probably don’t need to pay taxes on your income. Excess allowance amounts are returned by a certain date 2) substation is required 3) and the allowance is connected to some business purpose.

The accountable plan is defined as an expense allows that must meet the following requirements: 1. How you could be impacted by the tax varies according to the accountable plan. Don’t forget that your taxable income could be affected by the mileage reimbursements you receive for driving your own car for work. Just claim the differing amounts between the IRS rate and the mileage reimbursement rate that the employer gives you.

If you work for an employer who doesn’t employ the standard mileage rate system, you can get a partial deduction instead. This is referred to as “double-dipping” and the IRS doesn’t like that. Although you can get a nice deduction, you are not able to get a tax break on those miles. Your employer can then reimburse you for the miles that you drove. If you keep track of all of the miles that you drove for work, you can (and should) add those miles to your expense reports. Anyone who can do basic math can quickly see that someone who does a lot of driving for business travel can get a pretty nice deduction. As of 2017, the rate was set at 53.5 cents for every business mile driven. In some states, there is a set requirement for mileage reimbursement.Įvery year, the worth of the rate of every mile driven for work purposes is calculated by the IRS. In addition to no federal law requiring employers to reimburse their employees for their driving expenses, the IRS does not have any reimbursement rules regarding mileage reimbursement rates. However, keep in mind that for you to get tax-free mileage reimbursement, you are not allowed to get a mileage deduction. When you get your reimbursement, you probably won’t have to pay any income taxes on it either. Sometimes the reimbursement rate does not equate to the regular mileage rate, in which case you could get a partial deduction. That is where the mileage reimbursement comes in (and if you can’t get that, you can instead deduct from your business mileage). You can also get mileage reimbursement through expense reports (just make sure you are tracking your work miles for this too).Īs of right now, there is not nor has there ever been any kind of federal law mandating that private businesses reimburse their employees for any miles that they have driven with their personal vehicle but for company purposes. But getting a tax break is not the only benefit to tracking the work miles you rack up. If you are familiar with the basics of small business ownership, you have probably already been made aware of the practice of tracking how many miles that you drive in your vehicle for work purposes to get a nice tax deduction. The Mileage Reimbursement Rate refers to the amount of money that can be returned to someone such as an independent contractor who uses their personal vehicle for work purposes (when they are driving around to sell products or driving three hundred miles for a business trip, for example).

Updated November 5, 2020: Mileage Reimbursement Rate

Independent contractor mileage reimbursement