I drive for work. Should I lease?

[seanentrust]

Ok I'm looking for a little help and advice here. I'm a sales rep so I spend my days I'm the car driving. I drive about 75% for work purposes. I'm putting about 1500 a month on my car. I have another car for road trips if I need to. Currently driving an a6 3.0t. I love it on the freeway but it's about to hit 90k and it's a big car for city driving. Does it make sense for me to lease an s3 and write it off or am I'm better just buying and writing off mileage? I've leased before but never for business purposes. Just looking for some advice? I really wan an s3 but can I justify it?

[IbisB8.5S4]

i wouldnt. unless you get a lease that covers that amount of mileage/year. 1500/mo= 18000/yr. if you drive that car SOLELY for work.

[seanentrust]

i wouldnt. unless you get a lease that covers that amount of mileage/year. 1500/mo= 18000/yr. if you drive that car SOLELY for work.

You can get 18,000 mile a year leases. Even 15,000 would be fine. Just want to know if writing it off would be worth it or no?

[mjfloyd1]

That's a question to ask your CPA

[superswiss]

Yeah, you probably better ask a tax accountant who can evaluate your specific situation. I'm no tax accountant, but it seems expensing your miles will be the better deal. The 2016 IRS rate is 54 cents/mile. At 1500 miles/month that's $810 dollars. Don't know what an S3 leases for, but I'm pretty sure it's quite a bit less than that, so even if you could write off the entire lease payment, it wouldn't be as much of a write off as writing off the miles. Just curious, can't you expense your miles to your company? You can't write off your lease if the company reimburses you for the use of your personal vehicle.

[seanentrust]

Yeah, you probably better ask a tax accountant who can evaluate your specific situation. I'm no tax accountant, but it seems expensing your miles will be the better deal. The 2016 IRS rate is 54 cents/mile. At 1500 miles/month that's $810 dollars. Don't know what an S3 leases for, but I'm pretty sure it's quite a bit less than that, so even if you could write off the entire lease payment, it wouldn't be as much of a write off as writing off the miles. Just curious, can't you expense your miles to your company? You can't write off your lease if the company reimburses you for the use of your personal vehicle.

The company doesn't reimburse me for mileage or the car.

[seanentrust]

well after talking to my account leasing doesn't make sense, I'm better off writing off mileage. Today i went and test drove an s3 and of course I'm in love. Just need to figure out how to not get hosed on my trade in. They quickly knocked $4500 off the sticker of the s3 so I know theres more room :)