Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

With plenty of time for employers to adjust their employee reimbursement rates for next year’s business trips, IRS has published what the standard mileage deductions will be for 2021 tax returns.

Beginning on January 1, 2021, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

    56 cents per mile driven for business use, down 1.5 cents from the rate for 2020,
    16 cents per mile driven for medical, or moving purposes for qualified active duty members of the Armed Forces, down 1 cent from the rate for 2020, and
    14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations, the rate is set by statute and remains unchanged from 2020.

My normal comments on this subject still apply.

It’s a good idea to keep track of actual vehicle expenses during the year, because there are plenty of times when they will exceed the IRS’s calculation of average operating costs.

I have yet to hear an explanation from the wizards in Congress who write our tax laws as to why they believe that it costs so much less to operate a vehicle when it is being driven on non-business trips, such as for charity, medical or moving.  Just another oxymoron, Congressional Logic.