Just a question for others who have done their taxes, or will see their tax preparer shortly. Please note that I hand everything over to my tax guy, so I don't know the specifics of this myself. But I'm wondering how either pure EV, or EV+Gas cars throws a wrench into what the IRS says you can deduct for use of your car (such as for a small business). If I remember right, isn't there a figure each year the tax preparer uses to figure out how much you can deduct per mile? But isn't that based on the cost of gas? If one uses EV only (or a mix of EV and gas) how will that affect things, especially in the coming years as more and more people hopefully start using more EV? I wonder if the IRS will take this into consideration in the coming years -- and if those in high electric cost states (ie, CA) will only get a deduction based on the "average" nationwide EV cost (which is a lot less than what we pay here in CA). Anyone thought about this?
In the US, the standard rate per mile is set by the IRS each year. If you use actual costs, you would have to deal with gas versus electricity but i bet the standard rate is to your advantage. (actual cost might be better if you used a Hummer) 2017 Standard Mileage Rates for Business and Medical and Moving Announced | Internal Revenue Service [I am not a tax preparer, more importantly, I am not your tax preparer, but this information is true to the best of my knowledge]
Unless you drive a lot of miles a year, the cost of fuel or electricity to power your car is a small percentage of the cost of the car for the year. I paid about $35K for my Prime and will have only driven it 5000 miles the first year. With first year depreciation of about $9K, insurance and license about $400, the cost of fuel and electricity (about $220 for the 5K miles) is negligible. In other words, it costs me about five cents a mile this year for the energy to drive my car, but the cost of depreciation is closer to $1.80 per mile. Of course, in twenty years I will only have 100K miles on the car and depreciation will be negligible, but I will have other things to be concerned about then.
Don't feel bad. I had 55,000 on my last Prius that was totaled by Hurricane Harvey and it was right at a year old.
