In my time in public accounting, if I had to pick one area where clients consistently kept terrible records (and missed out on valuable deductions) it would be in tracking business miles.

Image credit: Zed Kolk  via Unsplash

If you own a business – even a side gig – chances are you drive for business at least a few time a year. Consider a few examples:

• You made a trip to Staples to buy ink for your printer to print out that freelancer contract for a new client.
• You went to the post office to ship a product from your Etsy shop.
• You attended a Chamber of Commerce mixer to meet other local business owners.
• You took a road trip to attend FinCon in SanDiego, or
• You drove to the airport and took a flight to San Diego for FinCon

You get my point. Even if you’re not driving daily, you probably drive at least occasionally for business – and probably for medical and charitable purposes as well. If you’re not tracking your mileage, you’re probably paying more in tax than you need to.

Last October, I wrote a post for Freshbooks with tips and tricks for Making the Most of Business Mileage Deductions.

Want to make it REALLY easy? Download MileIQ.

MileIQ is an automatic mileage tracker that takes the hassle out of keeping a mileage log. It runs in the background on your iOS or Android phone and logs every drive automatically. You swipe each drive to classify it as business or personal, and MileIQ calculates the value of your deductible mileage. You can also add details like parking, tolls and have a complete, accurate mileage log practically effortlessly.

I started using MileIQ in September of this year, and though I do very little driving for my business, I’ve tracked mileage deductions worth $132. That might not be enough to get me a huge refund come tax time, but every little deduction adds up!

This year, MileIQ is offering my clients a 20% discount on annual unlimited-drive plans. Subscriptions are regularly priced at $5.99/month or $59.99/year. (Here’s how to redeem promo codes.)

You can try MileIQ by downloading the free app for iOS or Android. To get an unlimited-drive plan at a 20% discount, sign in to your MileIQ web dashboard, click “Get Unlimited Drives,” and use promo code JBER424A at checkout. (Note that the discount is not valid for in-app upgrades or monthly plans.)

I hope you’ll give MileIQ a try and let me know what you think. (And remember, the subscription is deductible too! At 53.5 cents for every business mile you drive in 2017, it’ll pay for itself in just a few drives!

Note: This post is in no way sponsored by MileIQ, but as a Tax Pro, I received a free premium MileIQ account for 12 months and a chance to share it with my clients.