Car Care

Reduce That Annual Burden With Ownersite’s Digital Taxable Expense Report

Who wants to part with their hard-earned money each year? What’s even worse than forking over your earnings to Uncle Sam is the headache you get from preparing the information that your accountant needs in order to tell you that you are not getting a refund this year either—that is unless you find some more deductions.

Many of us scramble during tax season to scoop up mounds of paperwork and dig for receipts out from the dark cavernous region of our vehicles. You know the feeling. You are desperate to find anything that can be considered a write off in terms of an expense that the accountant can use in your favor. When it turns out that you cannot find all the documentation that you thought you had, your next step is to try and reconstruct a year’s worth of expenses in your head but you have a hard time remembering what you even did last week.

Now imagine doing that for more than one vehicle if you use two for a business expense or you own a number of businesses. It can turn into a real information overload and tax nightmare. Your accountant may have told you that the IRS may not allow certain deductions if there is not clear and accurate records, backing up the figures. Atlanta-based CPA Mike Grobman pointed out: “Unclaimed or under-claimed deductions represent a real net loss for businesses or individuals.”

There has got to be an easier way than scouting amongst month-old French fries and odd change under your vehicle’s seat. You do not have to spend time extracting crumpled receipts from manila folders and trying to reconstruct the financial outlay for the year on your vehicle or fleet of cars. And your accountant does not want to have to sift through crumpled receipts either nor do you want to get the bill for the time he spent on trying to make sense of it all.

Tackling the Taxing Information

Let Ownersite alleviate your tax burden by doing some of the heavy lifting for you. The company’s proprietary technology allows you to make easy work of tracking the vehicle expenses related to business that can be deducted for tax purposes.

Since you may not be familiar with all the deductions, Ownersite provides you with a helpful list of what can be deducted, such as:

• Gas
• Repairs and oil changes
• Tires
• Lease payments and fees
• Insurance and depreciation
• Licenses, tolls, and parking fees
• Registration fees
• Garage rent
• Vehicle washes and detail work
• Mileage from one workplace to another in terms of business meetings and office locations as well as visits to customers.

By partnering with Ownersite, you get access to an intuitive interface that helps you maintain adequate records about fuel usage, maintenance, and expenses not to mention information about the other items listed above as allowable business tax deductions.

If you are not sure about how some of these expenses can be utilized for deductions and do not want to talk to your accountant “on the clock,” Ownersite helps you do your own research. As an Ownersite subscriber, you can click through a library of articles that help you to more effectively maximize the expense details provided to your accountant or for yourself if you handle your own tax preparation.

A Comprehensive Information Repository

Ownersite works as your digital file cabinet, so get ready to throw out those manila folders and stop relying on paper. The company helps organize your life by storing all your vehicle expenses online. This means that you no longer have to rely on a written travel log to account for accurate mileage records.

The Taxable Expenses Report can also serve as a collection site for other vital information that is essential in compiling substantial business deductions. This includes areas in the report to list insurance, warranty, and registration payments as well as trip logs and certain maintenance that might be considered tax deductible.

If there are receipts you need to keep that are necessary for documentation of deductions, such as toll charges, rental car receipts, and repair forms, do not resort to file boxes and folders. Instead, Ownersite makes it easy by keeping these records for you. In a very short time, you can scan each receipt, create a digital file, and upload it to your Ownersite File Manager page. When tax season rolls around, you are ready to go. All you need to do is send these files to your accountant as e-mail attachments or you can choose to print them out as part of an information packet that will enable you to substantiate your deduction claims.

A File Box for the Road

With a wireless interface, you can now keep track of your business expenses while on a trip without having to deal with it when you get back to your home computer. It is so easy to use on the road. First, log-in to Ownersite from your PDA, cell phone, or laptop and then select trip log. There are boxes to input data related to start and end dates, time, and location along with an area to compute total distance. To help you quickly remember what that trip was for are additional boxes where you can list the purpose of your trip; check if it is personal or business; note it as a taxable expense; and enter notes that will be helpful to you and the accountant at the end of the year.

Take the Digital Trail

Think of Ownersite as your digital trail instead of that paper trail that you are used to chasing after. Remember that all those receipts are lost money because they are underutilized deductions. Get that money back in your pocket with Ownersite as your financial advisor and online admin support. Now, when tax season creeps up on you again, you will be prepared with all the details you need to minimize your tax burden and maximize the time you can spend on other activities.