Easily track your miles (with just one button) and download later for expense reports

Easily track your miles (with just one button) and download later for expense reports

No one enjoys tax season (except for maybe accountants) and as you put the final touches on your 2008 forms, you may be promising yourself that you will get an earlier start on it next year and keep better records so that it is not so complicated.

If you own a business with vehicles, you can now track and deduct mileage much easier with GPS technology. GPS expert, Fred Zahradnik, writes on his About.com blog that “TeleNav’s Shotgun model car GPS … provides the best solution I’ve seen for automating mileage tracking and logging.”

"TeleNav's Shotgun ... provides the best solution I've seen for automating mileage tracking and logging." -- Fred Zahradnik, About.com Guide to GPS

We also shared some information on using TeleNav Shotgun’s mileage tracking capabilities for your taxes earlier this year. For 2009, the optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile will be 55 cents per mile for business miles driven. For 2008, the business mileage rate was 50.5 cents in the first half of the year and 58.5 cents in the second half.

Depending on your type of business and how many vehicles you use for it, this deduction may really add up. Log 25,000 miles for 2009 for example, and that’s $13,750 in deductions. But accurately keeping track of all of the miles driven for the year is important – and this isn’t always easy.

If you’re in this situation, you may want to take Fred’s advice and consider TeleNav Shotgun. The device connects to the Internet via the wireless network so all of this information is stored for 24 months on your account and can be downloaded from your PC and exported into an Excel or PDF document. This eliminates any manual note taking or scribbles on backs of gas receipts and it also may help you keep more accurate records that are easy to share with the IRS if needed.

Give us a call if you have questions about how the Shotgun can be used for your business. If you’re already using it, let us know what you think. We want to hear your feedback.