Independent contractor with a audit question?

Question

i know its been answered many times, but i'm just trying to avoid having to pay off a "five year plan" for lack of knowledge as a first time independent contractor. I work for a real estate agency, and am allowed to write off my mileage traveled. I keep a daily log of mileage, and starting a few days ago I've kept a written log of the order of properties i've gone to. If and when I'm audited, will the auditor actually map out where i've gone and see if my mileage log matches up? If all i could retrieve from my boss was my mileage for the first two weeks of work and not specific road names, could he bust me on that? Also, I have gotten lost finding properties which has upped my mileage... is an auditor going to be that picky?

Answer 1

No, no, no. No worries. They are simply looking to see if it's reasonable and will calculate out an average amount of driving you do per day and see if your tally is way off (like got lost and ended up on a beach in Mexico). They may also check to see if the mileage on your car is far different than what you've claimed. -like if you have claimed 90,000 miles and your ten year old car only has 110,000 miles on it.

No one is going to look at road names. They will only look to see that you are keeping a log and that the average miles driven is within reason.

Answer 2

If you have a record of the miles, that's all they'd normally look at.  Of course if you tried to claim something outlandish, they'd ask you to back it up.

Answer 3

It sounds like you have a perfectly fine log. They are looking for excessive mileage.

Answer 4

Getting lost occasionally is to be expected.  Keep track of your other expenses too.