YAY! Happy Friday Y’all! Here’s to a nice and relaxing weekend ahead! Anyone have any AMAZING plans for this weekend?! We sure do!! Currently, we’re on the way to Morganton, NC to photograph the rehearsal dinner tonight and wedding day tomorrow of Carlee+Andrew! I simply can’t wait to finally see these two say “I Do!” What a wonderful weekend ahead, that’s for sure! 🙂
Speaking of traveling for work, for today’s Business Friday post, I’m going to bring up one of the behind-the-scenes of my business that I don’t really like to do, but it’s one of those things that I have to do for tax purposes! AND…it HELPS SO MUCH at the end of the year when tax credit rolls around. Any guesses on what it is?!
…It’s MILEAGE TRACKING! I know! What an exciting topic right?! However, it IS SO important for my fellow small business owners out there! Mileage tracking (especially when you use your car SO MUCH like I do!) is KEY and VERY IMPORTANT come tax time! Did you know that currently “The standard mileage rates for the use of a car, van, pickup, or panel truck: 55 cents per mile for business miles driven”?! (Source: efile.com) So that means that you can get a credit of .55¢ PER MILE TRAVELED BACK in your pocket at tax time! So that’s just money BACK in your wallet! It’s a no-brainer! Why WOULDN’T you record your mileage?!
I didn’t REALLY start recording my milage heavily until THIS YEAR and it amazes me just how much I use my car for the BUSINESS! So far this year, I’ve put 4,200 miles on my car…but 3,700 of those miles were actually FOR EMMA LOO! So that means, come tax time, I’ll have about a $2,000 TAX CREDIT just FOR MILEAGE! Something SO simple, right?!!
To keep track of my miles I travel for just Emma Loo purposes, I use a small spiral bound flip book that I keep in my center console. Whenever I’m headed to a session, driving to run errands to buy things FOR the BUSINESS, meeting with a Client, or simply just making a run to the bank or Post Office…IT GETS RECORDED. When I crank up the car, I pull out my notebook, write down the date, the reason for my trip (Client meeting, session, wedding, or errands…etc.) and then put the starting mileage down. Then I set my trip odometer to zero, and pull away. When I pull back into the driveway from being away, I pull my notebook BACK out again and record the odometer meter reading and then the trip odometer reading, so I have my starting and end mileage right there AND the total so I don’t have to do it later! 
At the end of each month, we’ll Phillip will take these totals and record them into our Quickbooks software and keeps track of the mileage throughout the year. This way we don’t have to do quite as much work come tax time AND we can keep up with our mileage and what to expect as far as a tax credit goes.
SO…moral of the story here? TRACK your mileage and RECORD EVERYTHING! Even those little trips to Hobby Lobby (which I frequent A LOT!) or to the bank will ADD up! As long as the trips are FOR the BUSINESS, then you’ll be able to get your credit!
Good luck! Happy Tracking! XO! -Emma Loo
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